Taurid Meteor Shower 2026: How to Catch the "Halloween Fireballs" This November

Every autumn, Earth ploughs through a wide, lumpy stream of debris left by Comet Encke, and the result is one of the year’s most unusual meteor showers. The Taurids are never prolific, often just a handful of meteors an hour, but they have a reputation for slow, bright fireballs that can light up the whole sky. That is why they are nicknamed the “Halloween fireballs”.

The Taurid meteor shower 2026 is active right now, and the best nights are still ahead. Here is when to look, where to look, and how to give yourself the best chance of catching a fireball this November.

Two showers in one: Southern and Northern Taurids

The Taurids are really two overlapping showers, both named after the constellation Taurus, where their meteors appear to start:

• Southern Taurids: active from mid-September to about 20 November. Sources disagree on their peak. The Royal Observatory Greenwich lists an early maximum around 10 October, while other observing guides highlight the nights of 4–5 November. In practice, the shower’s activity is so broad and low that early November is still a good time to see them.
• Northern Taurids: active from about 20 October to 10 December, with a peak on 11–12 November. Activity stays close to its maximum for several days around that date.

Each stream gives only about 5 meteors per hour under ideal dark skies. Together they make early to mid-November the best fireball window of the year.

Why Taurids make so many fireballs

The Taurid stream comes from Comet 2P/Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years. Astronomers think Encke and the Taurid debris are the remains of a much larger comet that broke apart over the past 20,000 to 30,000 years. That breakup left unusually large particles, some pebble-sized or bigger, spread through the stream.

When one of these larger pieces hits the atmosphere, it can blaze brighter than Venus. Taurids also hit Earth relatively slowly, at about 27 km per second (around 65,000 mph), compared with about 71 km/s for the Leonids. The slower entry makes them burn longer, so a Taurid fireball can glide across the sky for several seconds, sometimes leaving a glowing trail.

When and where to look

The radiant in Taurus rises in the east in the evening and climbs high in the south around midnight. That makes the hours from about 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. local time the most productive, when the radiant is highest. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, so do not stare at Taurus itself; look about 40° to 50° away from it, where trails look longest.

To find Taurus, look for the bright orange star Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster nearby. Our constellations visible tonight tool shows exactly where Taurus is from your location, and the Live Sky AR camera can point you to it on your phone.

The Moon in November 2026

Moonlight is the biggest enemy of faint meteors, but bright fireballs can still punch through it. In early November the Moon is a waning crescent that rises after midnight, so the evening hours are darker. The real chance comes around the Northern Taurid peak of 11–12 November: New Moon falls on 9 November, so the thin crescent sets early in the evening and leaves a dark sky for the rest of the night. Check the Moon phase tonight and the moonrise time for your city before you head out.

How to watch the Taurids: a quick checklist

• Get away from city lights. Even a short drive to a darker spot makes a big difference. Use the best time to stargaze tonight to check cloud cover and darkness.
• Give your eyes 20 minutes to adapt to the dark, and avoid looking at your phone screen.
• Lie back and take in as much sky as possible. Binoculars and telescopes do not help with meteors.
• Be patient. With only a few meteors an hour, you may wait 15 minutes between sightings, but one good fireball is worth the wait.
• Dress warmly. November nights are cold in the Northern Hemisphere, even when the days are mild.

How to photograph a Taurid fireball

Fireballs are unpredictable, so the trick is to let the camera wait for you. Put a camera or phone on a tripod, point it about halfway up the sky towards Taurus, and take continuous long exposures of 15 to 30 seconds. Use the widest lens you have, focus manually on a bright star, and set ISO 1600 to 3200 with the aperture wide open. Many phones have a night or “astro” mode that does much of this automatically. Shoot for an hour or more, then check the frames afterwards: one bright Taurid can make the whole night worthwhile. A slow fireball near the horizon, with trees or a skyline below, makes a striking picture.

Can I see the Taurids from India, the UK, the US or Australia?

Yes. Taurus is close to the celestial equator, so the Taurids can be seen from both hemispheres, from all of Europe, North America, India, Africa and most of Australia and South America. Observers in the Northern Hemisphere get the radiant higher in the sky, so they usually see slightly more meteors, but a bright Taurid fireball can turn up anywhere.

Is there a Taurid “swarm” year?

In some years, Earth passes through a denser clump of Taurid debris, called the Taurid swarm, and fireball numbers rise noticeably. Some researchers expect closer passes through the swarm in the early 2030s. Nothing suggests 2026 is a major swarm year, so expect the shower’s usual low but fireball-rich rates. There is also no known risk: the Taurid particles burn up harmlessly high in the atmosphere.

More meteors this month

The Taurids are just the start of a busy month. The Leonids peak on 17–18 November, with fast meteors from the constellation Leo; read our Leonid meteor shower 2026 guide. Before dawn from 13 to 22 November, four planets line up in the east; see our planet parade November 2026 guide. Then on 24 November the Beaver Supermoon rises; see when the next Full Moon rises for you. For every shower of the year, open the meteor shower calendar, or check the meteor shower tonight page for what is active right now.

Sources: Royal Museums Greenwich: Taurid meteor shower 2026; Star Walk: Southern and Northern Taurids 2026. Moon phases calculated by SpaceTracker.live.