The month's sky
What to see in the night sky: December 2026
The Moon, the planets, the meteor showers and what is well placed in the evening, computed for the centre of France, with what a telescope really shows of each target.
- 9 DecNew moon
- 5–12 DecMoon-free nights
- 4naked-eye planets
- 13–14 DecGeminids
Dates and times are for December 2026, Paris time. On 1 January this page moves on to December 2027. Computed for the centre of metropolitan France: where you are, rising and setting times can be about half an hour off.
In brief
- Dark nights for faint objects: 5–12 December, around the new moon of 9 December.
- Planets: Saturn in the evening; Venus, Mars and Jupiter before dawn.
- Meteors: the Geminids peak on the night of 13–14 December.
The Moon
- Last quarterTuesday 1 December, 7:09
- New moonWednesday 9 December, 1:52
- First quarterThursday 17 December, 6:43
- Full moonThursday 24 December, 2:28
- Last quarterWednesday 30 December, 20:00
Moon-free evenings: 1–12 December and 28–31 December.
Whole nights without the Moon, the best for galaxies and nebulae: 5–12 December.
How it is counted
An evening counts as Moon-free when the Moon is below the horizon, or less than 15 % lit, for the first three hours of full darkness (the Sun more than 18° below the horizon). A whole night: the same, from dusk to dawn. The 15 % is a rule of thumb: a thin crescent barely brightens the sky.
Quarter times computed with astronomy-engine and checked against the US Naval Observatory's tables, to within two minutes.
The planets
Times and heights for the night of 15–16 December, Paris time, rounded to the quarter hour.
- VenusBefore dawn · all monthVisible from 6:45 until dawn · highest around 8:00, 27° south-eastMagnitude −4.8: brighter than any star.
- MarsBefore dawn · all monthVisible from 1:00 until dawn · highest around 5:45, 55° due southMagnitude 0.2: as bright as the brightest stars.
- JupiterBefore dawn · all monthVisible from 0:15 until dawn · highest around 5:15, 57° due southMagnitude −2.3: brighter than any star.
- SaturnIn the evening · all monthVisible from nightfall to 23:45 · highest around 19:45, 44° due southMagnitude 0.7: as bright as the brightest stars.
Not visible this month: Mercury.
How a planet is counted
A planet counts as visible when it stands more than 20° above the horizon with the Sun more than 6° below it — or, if it is bright (magnitude 1 or brighter), 10° up in the twilight, over a clear horizon. Observing rules of thumb, not optics. Magnitude: the smaller the number, the brighter; Sirius, the brightest star, is −1.5.
Meteor showers
σ-Hydrids
Peak on the night of 8–9 December · active 3–20 December
At best between 3:00 and 4:00: about 1 an hour under a suburban sky, about 5 under a dark one.
No Moon in the way that night.
Peak on the night of 13–14 December · active 4–20 December
At best between 2:00 and 3:00: about 46 an hour under a suburban sky, about 146 under a dark one.
The Moon (21 % lit) is up for 3 of the 13 useful hours.
Ursids
Peak on the night of 22–23 December · active 17–26 December
At best between 6:00 and 7:00: about 1 an hour under a suburban sky, about 2 under a dark one.
The Moon (99 % lit) is up all night: it will wash out the faint ones.
How the numbers are worked out
Hourly rate = ZHR × sin(radiant height) × r^(limiting magnitude − 6.5): the International Meteor Organization's formula, with the radiant's height computed hour by hour for the centre of France. The ZHR is an ideal, the count with the radiant overhead under a sky showing stars to magnitude 6.5; almost no one reaches it.
Rules of thumb, not physics: the faintest star each sky shows (Bortle 6 for a suburb, Bortle 3 for a dark site), what the Moon's light takes away, and counting only the hours with the Sun more than 12° below the horizon. The rates are for an attentive observer lying back under a clear sky; a beginner counts about half.
ZHR used: σ-Hydrids 7, Geminids 150 and Ursids 10.
International Meteor Organization: 2026 meteor shower calendar
Dates to note
The Geminids peak on the night of 13 December. No telescope needed: the best meteor shower of the year wants a dark sky, a reclining chair and patience. How many will you see? →
Well placed in the evening
At least 25° above the horizon at 21:30 on 15 December:
- The Double Cluster NGC 869 / NGC 88479° · nearly overheadrecognisable from 48 mm (rule of thumb)
- The Andromeda Galaxy M3172° · due westrecognisable from 79 mm (rule of thumb)
- The Pleiades M4561° · south-eastrecognisable from 16 mm (rule of thumb)
Earlier in the evening: the Ring Nebula until about 20:00, Albireo until about 20:15 and the Dumbbell Nebula until about 20:15.
Later: the Orion Nebula from about 21:45.
The aperture to recognise each one under a suburban sky (Bortle 6) is an observing rule of thumb, not optics. Each target's page has the three levels and the other skies.
Why 25° at 21:30
21:30 is the middle of the hour most people are out after dinner (or the end of twilight, in the months when it is not dark by then), and the 15th the middle of the month. Below 25° you look through more than twice the air overhead (air mass 1/sin 25° ≈ 2.4): murk, turbulence and the neighbour's roof. The stars rise about 4 minutes earlier each night: at the start of the month the same sky comes about an hour later, at the end about an hour earlier.