Reference
Every year brings a few dozen recognised meteor showers. Nine of them produce enough meteors to justify a cold hour in a deck chair. These are those nine.
Peak dates shift by up to a day between years. Rates are zenithal hourly rates: what a single observer would see under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead. Expect a third of that on a normal night.
| Shower | Peak | Active period | ZHR | Speed | Parent body |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrantids | 3–4 Jan | 28 Dec – 12 Jan | 110 | 41 km/s | asteroid 2003 EH1 |
| Lyrids | 22–23 Apr | 16 – 25 Apr | 18 | 49 km/s | comet Thatcher |
| Eta Aquariids | 5–6 May | 19 Apr – 28 May | 50 | 66 km/s | comet 1P/Halley |
| Delta Aquariids | 30 Jul | 12 Jul – 23 Aug | 25 | 41 km/s | comet 96P/Machholz |
| Perseids | 12–13 Aug | 17 Jul – 24 Aug | 100 | 59 km/s | comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle |
| Orionids | 21–22 Oct | 2 Oct – 7 Nov | 20 | 66 km/s | comet 1P/Halley |
| Leonids | 17–18 Nov | 6 – 30 Nov | 15 | 71 km/s | comet 55P/Tempel–Tuttle |
| Geminids | 13–14 Dec | 4 – 17 Dec | 150 | 35 km/s | asteroid 3200 Phaethon |
| Ursids | 22–23 Dec | 17 – 26 Dec | 10 | 33 km/s | comet 8P/Tuttle |
It assumes the radiant is at the zenith and the faintest visible star is magnitude 6.5. Drop the radiant to 30° above the horizon and you lose half. Add suburban skyglow and you lose most of the rest.
Before midnight your side of the planet faces away from its direction of travel, so you only catch meteors that overtake the Earth. After midnight you face forward and sweep them up head-on.
The fast showers — Leonids, Orionids, Eta Aquariids, all above 60 km/s — leave persistent trains that hang for a second or two. The slow Geminids produce long, deliberate streaks that are easier to point at.
Quadrantids and Geminids trace back to asteroids rather than comets. The Geminids are also the youngest major stream, and by far the most reliable in a bad year.
Lie back so the sky fills your field of view, pick a patch about 50° away from the radiant, and stay there. Meteors near the radiant are foreshortened to short stubs; the long ones appear well off to the side. Do not use binoculars — the field is far too narrow.
Count in fixed blocks, an hour at a time, and write down the clock time of every meteor. Rates vary enough between half-hours that an impression formed over ten minutes is worthless.