Blog Sky
Meteor showers 2027: which are worth watching (and which the moon will hide)
The meteor showers of 2027 with their dates and, above all, what the moon will be doing that night: the Perseids and the Eta Aquariids will be the best of the year.
A meteor shower is the Earth passing through the dust a comet left behind. Each grain, the size of a seed, burns up as it enters the atmosphere and draws a line of light. It happens every year on the same dates.
But there's one detail almost nobody checks: the moon. A full moon lights up the sky so much that it wipes out the fainter shooting stars. So before you head out to look, it's worth knowing what phase it will be in.
The 2027 showers and their moon
| Shower | Peak | The moon that night | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrantids | 3–4 January | waning, almost new (new on the 7th) | Yes, if you don't mind the cold |
| Lyrids | 22 April | full on the 21st | Hardly: the moon lights everything up |
| Eta Aquariids | 6 May | new moon | Yes: dark skies, best before dawn |
| Perseids | 12–13 August | waxing gibbous, 82% lit (new on the 2nd, full on the 17th) | Yes, before dawn, once the moon has set |
| Orionids | 21 October | waning | So-so, after midnight |
| Leonids | 17 November | waning (full on the 14th) | Hardly |
| Geminids | 13–14 December | full on the 13th | Not this year |
Moon phases calculated for Spain and Poland. Peak dates are the usual ones for each shower; they may vary by a day.
The 2027 Perseids: save the date
The Perseids, known in Spain as the "Tears of St Lawrence", are the most famous shower of the summer: under a good sky you can see more than fifty an hour. In 2027 they arrive ten days after the total eclipse of 2 August, with a waxing gibbous moon that lights up the first part of the night. It sets at around 3:30 in Spain and around 1:00 in Poland: from then until dawn, the night of 12–13 August will have a dark sky.
How to really see them
- Far from the lights. A small village, a beach without street lamps, the countryside.
- Lying down, looking up, without searching for one particular spot: they appear all over the sky.
- Twenty minutes in the dark before you start, without looking at your phone: your eyes need time to adjust.
- In the small hours you'll see more than at dusk.
- A blanket, something hot to drink and no rush at all.
A small ritual
People used to make a wish on every shooting star. Try taking a notebook: each time you see one, write down a word, the first that comes to you. At the end of the night, read them all together. They usually say something.
I have them marked in my journal, next to their day and their moon, so I never miss a good one.
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