Best nights to stargaze — next 7 days
Pick a location and we’ll tell you the best nights to head out over the next week, plus which planets, meteor showers, and satellite passes you’ll actually be able to see.
Where are you watching from?
Tonight at a glance
Best nights — next 7 days
What you can see tonight
Planets above the horizon
Active meteor showers
Bright constellations this season
ISS passes — next 3 days
How the score works
Each night is rated out of 100 based on three things that make or break a stargazing trip: how cloudy it’ll be during full darkness (weighted most), how much moonlight is washing out the sky, and whether any meteor showers are peaking. Anything above 70 is a good night; 85+ is excellent. Get away from city lights if you can.
The Lyrids are a modest April shower that rewards patience. From New Zealand they are harder to see than from the Northern Hemisphere because the radiant stays low, but a dark site with a clear northern horizon will still pick up a handful of bright, fast meteors — including the occasional fireball that lights up the whole sky. It is the first real meteor shower of the New Zealand autumn.
When to watch the Lyrids
The Lyrids peak on the night of 22–23 April each year, with activity running from about 16 April to 25 April. The shower has a sharp, short peak lasting only a few hours, so catching the best night matters more than it does with broader showers like the Delta Aquariids.
Where to look from New Zealand
Look low in the north and north-east from about 10 pm onwards. The radiant sits in the small constellation Lyra, near the bright star Vega. From New Zealand, Vega only climbs to a modest altitude above the northern horizon — and from the lower South Island it barely rises at all. This is the main reason New Zealand sees fewer Lyrids than, say, Japan or California. A northern viewing site with no hills or buildings in the way makes a real difference here.
How to get the best view
- Pick a site with a genuinely clear northern horizon. Coastal clifftops facing north, or flat farmland, work well.
- The further north you are in New Zealand, the better. Northland and the upper North Island see the shower best.
- Go late. The radiant is highest around midnight to 2 am — earlier than that and it is too low to see much.
- April nights inland can get cold fast. Jacket, hat, gloves, and something to sit on.
- Let your eyes adapt for 20 minutes. Stay off the phone.
- Check the Moon. Around a Full Moon the Lyrids are almost impossible to see — the tool at the top of this page flags the Moon forecast for your location.
- Be patient. Rates are modest — maybe 10 meteors an hour from a dark NZ site at peak — but Lyrid fireballs are dramatic when they come.
What causes the Lyrids
The Lyrids are the oldest recorded meteor shower. Chinese observers noted them in 687 BCE — about 2,700 years ago — and the shower has been running ever since. The parent body is Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), a long-period comet on a 415-year orbit, last seen in 1861 and not due back until the 2280s. The dust stream Earth crosses in April is ancient, which is why the shower has a relatively low but extremely reliable rate year after year.
The meteors themselves
Lyrid meteors are fast — about 49 kilometres per second — and a slightly higher proportion than usual turn into fireballs bright enough to cast shadows. In rare years (1803, 1922, 1982) the Lyrids have surged to rates of 90 or more meteors per hour, apparently due to denser filaments in the dust stream. No surge is predicted for the near future, but the shower is known for occasional surprises.
Forecast for your night
Use the live viewing panel at the top of this page to see whether the sky will be clear where you are. For the full night-by-night cloud, Moon and darkness forecast across every New Zealand region, visit the New Zealand Stargazing Forecast.