Watching a meteor shower with kids

Pick a shower with a good verdict, go out after the Moon is down, lie back on a blanket with your whole sky in view, give your eyes twenty minutes without screens, and count every streak. No binoculars. Twenty minutes is a success; stop before anyone is miserable.

Pick the night

Only two or three showers a year are strong enough for children: usually the Geminids in December, the Perseids in August and the Quadrantids in early January. Each shower page here has a verdict that weighs the shower's rate against the Moon on its peak night. "Great" and "good" are worth an outing; "so-so" is worth twenty minutes if you're out anyway.

Set up

A blanket or reclining chair, and everyone dressed warmer than seems sensible: lying still is cold. Pick the darkest spot you can reach easily, with as much open sky as possible. Turn off porch lights.

No binoculars and no telescope: they narrow the view to a small circle and meteors can appear anywhere.

Phones away, or on Outside mode, for twenty minutes.
Lie back and look about halfway up, not at one spot.
Call "there!" for every streak and keep a tally.
Agree a stopping time before you start.

What to expect

The rates quoted for showers are for a perfect dark sky with the radiant overhead. From a back yard expect far fewer, and expect gaps of a few minutes followed by two at once. That clumping is normal and is part of the fun.

Most showers get better after midnight. The shower pages say what an early bedtime still gets, so nobody is disappointed.

Make it stick

Print the shower night kit from the shower's page: a box for every ten minutes and a line for the brightest one. Next year's numbers are more interesting when you have this year's.

Which night to choose

In 2026 the Geminids, on the night of 13 to 14 December, are the one to plan around: a thin crescent Moon sets early in the evening, and they start well before midnight, so even a child with a normal bedtime has a fair chance. The Leonids in November are a small shower in 2026, best only before dawn. In 2027 the Quadrantids on the night of 3 to 4 January have a thin Moon too, but their peak lasts only a few hours and comes on a cold night.

Every shower page has its next peak night, the Moon from our sky table and a verdict, so you can see at a glance which ones are worth a coat.

More guides

“Read it, then go and look. The sky is the best page in the book.”