Ursids 2027
The year's quiet closer, radiating from near the Little Dipper.
Viewing conditions this year
The Moon will be 24% illuminated on the peak night — excellent — dark skies. With dark skies, expect to catch a meaningful fraction of the quoted 10/hour ideal rate — find dark country sky and the Ursids should deliver.
What causes a meteor shower?
Comets (and a few asteroids) shed streams of dust along their orbits. When Earth crosses one of those streams — the same dates every year — the particles hit our atmosphere in parallel, appearing to radiate from one point in the sky. Each visible meteor is typically a fragment the size of a sand grain, vaporizing 80–100 km overhead.
How to actually see meteors
No telescope — your eyes have the widest field of view. Get away from city lights, give your eyes 20–30 minutes to dark-adapt (no phone screens), lie back, and watch as much sky as possible. Rates are almost always best after midnight, when your side of Earth faces into the stream. The quoted ZHR (zenithal hourly rate) is a perfect-conditions ceiling; expect to see a third to half of it under a good dark sky, less with moonlight.
Where it comes from
Ursids meteors are debris shed by 8P/Tuttle. They appear to radiate from the constellation Ursa Minor, and the shower is best seen from the northern hemisphere. Rates build over the active window (Dec 17 – Dec 26) and drop quickly after the peak.
Get a push the evening this shower peaks
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What’s passing, what’s visible, what hit.