Moon and Meteor Showers
Is tonight a good night for stars? The moon is often the answer. See tonight’s moon over Lethbridge, the phases for the next 30 days, and when the next big meteor shower peaks, with how much the moon will get in the way.
Tonight’s moon and the next showers
Moon and meteor showers
Tonight’s moon over Lethbridge, the phases for the next 30 days, and the next big meteor showers with how much the moon will get in the way.
Everything here is worked out in your browser for Lethbridge, using standard astronomical formulas. Times are Alberta time (UTC−6).
On this page
Why the moon matters
The moon is by far the brightest thing in the night sky. When it’s up and more than about half lit, its light scatters through the air and brightens the whole sky, much like the glow over a town. Bright stars and planets still shine through, but the faint ones disappear, the Milky Way fades away, and most meteors in a shower are too faint to see.
So for meteors and faint stars, two things count: how much of the moon is lit, and whether it’s above the horizon during the dark hours. A full moon is up all night and spoils the whole night. A thin crescent sets soon after the sun, or rises just before it, and barely matters. In between, the time of moonrise or moonset is what you plan around.
What it means for you: for a meteor shower, the best nights are within a few days of new moon. If the peak falls near full moon, watch a night or two before the peak, or wait for the dark hours after moonset. The tool works this out for each shower.
A bright moon isn’t all bad. It’s the best time to look at the moon itself, and the days around first quarter are great for binoculars: the craters and mountains along the edge between light and dark stand out in long shadows.
How to read the tool
- The drawing shows the moon as we see it from the northern hemisphere: lit on the right as it grows (waxing) and on the left as it shrinks (waning).
- Lit is how much of the face you see lit by the sun. Age is the number of days since the last new moon; a full cycle takes about 29.5 days.
- Moonrise and moonset follow the U.S. Naval Observatory’s convention: the moment the top edge of the moon touches a flat, open horizon. Hills, coulee walls and buildings will make the real times a little later for rising and earlier for setting. Some days have no moonrise or no moonset, because the moon rises later each day and occasionally skips a calendar day.
- Good night for stargazing? looks at the dark hours, once the sun is more than 12° below the horizon, and how much moonlight falls in them. It doesn’t know about clouds or smoke.
- The next 30 days shows each night at 10 p.m., with new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter marked, and the traditional name of each full moon.
- Meteor showers lists the next peak of each major shower, the peak night in Alberta time, a countdown, and a moonlight rating for the hours that suit that shower.
About the meteor shower dates
Peak times for 2026 and 2027 come from the International Meteor Organization (IMO), which publishes a calendar each year. The IMO hasn’t published its 2028 calendar yet, so for 2028 the tool estimates each peak from the point in Earth’s orbit where the IMO places it. Those dates are marked as estimates and are usually within a few hours, but a shower can peak early or late, and the IMO sometimes predicts extra bursts of activity. Check back once the new calendar is out.
The tool usually picks the night closest to the peak in Alberta time, so it can differ by a night from listings made for Europe.
A shower’s ZHR (zenithal hourly rate) is the number of meteors one observer would see in an hour under a perfectly dark sky, with the shower’s radiant straight overhead. Real counts are lower, often well under half. Our Sky Calendar explains more about each shower.
The full moon names are the traditional almanac names that NASA describes. Different sources give different names, and Indigenous nations, including the Blackfoot, have their own ways of naming the moons. See Full moon names for the full list and where the names come from.
The phases at a glance
| Phase | When it’s up (roughly) | For stargazing |
|---|---|---|
| New moon | Up with the sun, so not seen at night | The darkest nights of the month |
| Waxing crescent | Evening, low in the west after sunset | Good: sets early in the evening |
| First quarter | Afternoon to about midnight | Good after it sets around midnight |
| Waxing gibbous | Late afternoon to the early morning hours | Only the hours before dawn are dark |
| Full moon | All night, rising around sunset | The brightest nights of the month |
| Waning gibbous | Mid-evening to morning | Dark only early in the evening |
| Last quarter | About midnight to midday | Good in the evening, before it rises |
| Waning crescent | Before dawn, low in the east | Good: rises just before the sun |
On average the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, but the gap varies a lot through the year, from well under half an hour to more than an hour.
Watching a meteor shower from around Lethbridge
- Pick your night. Use the tool to find the peak night and the moonlight rating, then check the cloud forecast a day or two ahead.
- Get away from the city glow. Even 30 km out of the city makes a big difference, and south and east of Lethbridge tend to be darker than the busy corridor toward Calgary. Our Dark spots close to home guide has the details.
- Use public places only. Provincial parks, campgrounds and day-use areas where you’re allowed to be after dark are best. Don’t go onto farmland or pastures without permission, and don’t block gates or field approaches.
- Give your eyes time. It takes about half an hour for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Use a red light, or your phone’s night mode with the screen turned right down.
- Lie back and look up. No telescope or binoculars needed; they show too little sky. Face away from any town glow and look about halfway up. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky.
- Stay a while. Meteors come in bunches and lulls. Allow at least an hour. For most showers, the hours after midnight are best.
Staying safe at night
- Pull right off the road onto a wide, safe shoulder or approach before you stop, and never park on a blind hill or curve.
- Be seen. Wear something reflective or carry a light near any road. Drivers don’t expect people standing in the dark.
- Watch for wildlife, especially deer at dusk and through the night.
- Tell someone where you’re going, especially in winter. Cell coverage can be patchy in the coulees and hills.
- Dress for lying still. You’ll be cold long before you’d expect, even in August. In December, a thick pad under you matters as much as a warm coat. See What to Wear.
More tips for night trips are on our Dark Skies page.
Family activity: a moon diary
Try this: for one month, step outside at the same time each evening, find the moon and draw it in a notebook. Write the date, the time and where it was in the sky. If you can’t find it, write that down too, and use the tool to find out why.
Wonder: the moon doesn’t make its own light. So why does it change shape? (Hint: half of the moon is always lit by the sun. What changes is how much of that lit half faces us.)
Check it: at the end of the month, compare your drawings with the 30-day strip above. Did your moon grow on the right side and shrink on the left?
The moon from 49.7° north
Lethbridge sits at about 49.7° north. At this latitude the moon’s path across the sky changes a lot through the year, and it’s worth knowing how before you plan a night out.
High winter moons, low summer moons
A full moon sits opposite the sun in the sky. So in winter, when the sun is low, the full moon rides high, and in summer, when the sun is high, the full moon stays low. Worked out for Lethbridge with the same formulas the tool uses:
| Full moon | Highest point above the horizon |
|---|---|
| December 23, 2026 | about 67°, higher than the noon sun ever gets here (about 64° in late June) |
| March 22, 2027 | about 37° |
| June 18, 2027 | only about 13° |
| September 15, 2027 | about 43° |
- A winter full moon lights up snow and the whole sky all night. It’s a fine night for a moonlit walk, and a poor one for the Geminids.
- A summer full moon skims low over the south. Coulee walls, trees and buildings can hide it, and it often looks yellow or orange through the extra air near the horizon.
The Harvest Moon effect
On average the moon rises about 50 minutes later each night. Around the September equinox its path meets the evening horizon at a shallow angle, so it rises only a little later from one night to the next. The farther north you are, the stronger this is. Space.com’s Joe Rao gives about 11 minutes a night for Edmonton.
Here’s how it played out in Lethbridge:
- Around the Harvest Moon of September 26, 2026, the moon rose at about 6:36, 6:50, 7:04 and 7:20 p.m. on four nights in a row: only about 15 minutes later each night.
- Around the full moon of March 22, 2027, it rises about 80 minutes later each night.
So after a September full moon, you get several bright evenings in a row, and the dark hours before moonrise shrink slowly. After a spring full moon, the dark evenings come back fast.
Times are Alberta Time (UTC−6), calculated for central Lethbridge on a flat horizon.
Sources
- International Meteor Organization, Meteor Shower Calendar (typical ZHR, activity periods, IMO’s night labels and moon notes): imo.net
- International Meteor Organization, Meteor Shower Calendar 2026 by J. Rendtel (peak times; German edition): imo.net, and the announcement, The 2026 meteor shower calendar is here: imo.net
- International Meteor Organization, Meteor Shower Calendar 2027 (peak times): imo.net
- U.S. Naval Observatory, Dates of Primary Phases of the Moon, 2026 (used to check the tool): aa.usno.navy.mil
- U.S. Naval Observatory, Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions (archived; how moonrise and moonset are defined): webarchive.library.unt.edu
- Griffith Observatory, 2027 Phases of the Moon (used to check the tool): griffithobservatory.lacity.gov
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, moonrise and moonset tables (used to check the rise and set calculation): eco.mtk.nao.ac.jp
- Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, 2nd edition (Willmann-Bell, 1998): the formulas for the moon’s phases (chapter 49), position (chapter 47), illumination (chapter 48) and the sun (chapter 25).
- NASA Science, Full Moon Guide, November to December 2021 (where the traditional full moon names come from): science.nasa.gov
- NASA Night Sky Network, “Stargazing for Beginners” (about 30 minutes to adapt to the dark; red light): nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov
- When each phase is up, the moon rising about 50 minutes later each day on average, and why moonlight hides faint stars and meteors are standard astronomy, not from a single source above.
- Space.com, Joe Rao, The nights of the Harvest Moon (shallow evening angle; about 11 minutes a night at Edmonton): space.com
- Full moon heights and moonrise times for Lethbridge are calculated with the same Meeus formulas as the moon tool above (chapters 47 and 49).