Key Takeaways
- The June Bootids meteor shower peaks tonight (26–27 June) — usually quiet, but famous for rare surprise outbursts of up to 100 meteors an hour
- Bootid meteors are unusually slow (18 km/s), producing long, graceful streaks — and the radiant sits high in the western sky right after dark
- Asteroid 1997 NC1, around 1 km wide, passes Earth safely at 2.4 million km (about 6 times the Moon's distance)
- After dark, the bright near-full Moon sits close to red Antares, the heart of Scorpius, low in the south
- Before dawn (~04:00 BST), Mars brushes past the Pleiades star cluster low in the east — its closest such pass until 2034
📑 Table of Contents
Most nights you're lucky to get one thing worth heading outside for. Tonight the UK gets four. An unpredictable meteor shower is at its peak, a kilometre-wide asteroid is passing the planet, the Moon is sitting next to one of the reddest stars in the sky, and Mars is sliding past the Pleiades just before dawn. You won't need a telescope for most of it, and on a clear night you can see it all from the back garden. Here's what to look for on Saturday 27 June, and when.
June Bootids Meteor Shower: How to See It Tonight
Tonight's main event is the June Bootids, the most unpredictable meteor shower of the year. Most showers are reliable and you know roughly what to expect. The Bootids aren't. In a normal year you might see one or two meteors an hour, sometimes none at all. Then, every so often, they put on a real show with no warning. In 1998 people saw up to 100 an hour, and 2004 brought 20 to 50. Nobody predicted either.
The meteors are dust and debris left behind by comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, which orbits the Sun every 6.4 years. When Earth runs through a thick part of that trail, we get a good display. When we clip a thin part, we get almost nothing. No outburst is forecast for 2026, but the Bootids have surprised people before, and that's the appeal. Step outside tonight and you're taking a chance on the year's biggest wild card.
One more thing makes them worth catching: they're slow. Bootids hit the atmosphere at about 18 km/s, well below the speed of a fast shower like the Perseids. Instead of a quick flash, you get a long, drawn-out streak that seems to glide across the sky. A bright one is a lovely thing to see.
There's good news and bad news for UK skywatchers. The good news is that the radiant in Boötes is already high in the western and south-western sky once it gets dark, so you can start watching in the late evening rather than the small hours. The bad news is tonight's bright, almost-full Moon (more on that below), which will wash out the fainter meteors. To give yourself the best chance, find a dark spot, keep the Moon behind you or hidden behind a building, let your eyes adjust for 20 minutes, and be patient. You won't see dozens, but one good Bootid drifting overhead makes it worth the wait.
Asteroid 1997 NC1 Passes Earth Today
While you're outside, something much bigger is going past unseen. Asteroid 1997 NC1, thought to be about 1 km across, makes a close approach to Earth today. At that size it counts as a substantial near-Earth object.
There's no need to worry: this is a safe, well-tracked flyby. The asteroid passes at about 2.4 million km, roughly six times the distance to the Moon. That only counts as close on the scale of the solar system; in everyday terms it's a long way off. Astronomers have tracked this rock and its orbit for years, and it poses no risk.
You won't see it with the naked eye, because at that distance a kilometre-wide rock is very faint. But with a moderate backyard telescope and an up-to-date finder chart, you may be able to pick it out as a dim point of light that slowly shifts against the background stars over an hour or two. That slow movement is how you know you've found it. It's a mountain-sized piece of the early solar system passing by, even if most of us will only know it's there rather than see it.
The Moon and Antares After Dark
The easiest sight of the night is a simple one: look south after sunset. The Moon, a bright waxing gibbous about 97% lit and only a couple of nights short of June's Strawberry Full Moon, sits low in the south. Tonight it has company in the form of a famous red star.
That star is Antares, the bright heart of the constellation Scorpius. Its name means "rival of Mars," a nod to its strong reddish-orange colour. Antares is a huge red supergiant; if it replaced our Sun, it would reach out past the orbit of Mars. Look for it just to the lower left of the Moon tonight, about 6° away, a little less than the width of your fist held at arm's length.
It's an easy pair to spot with the naked eye: the silver Moon and the red star together, low over the southern horizon in the summer twilight. Scorpius never climbs very high from the UK, so seeing its brightest star next to the Moon is a good reminder that this summer constellation is down there at all. Binoculars bring out Antares' colour nicely against the Moon's glare.
Mars and the Pleiades Before Dawn
If you can face an early alarm, the best sight of all is in the pre-dawn sky. Mars is passing the Pleiades, the blue star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters, and the two are at their closest tonight and tomorrow morning.
Set your alarm for around 04:00 BST and look low to the east-north-east as the sky starts to brighten. The draw is the colour contrast: rusty-red Mars right next to the cool blue of the Pleiades. To the naked eye the cluster looks like a small, misty knot of stars. Through binoculars it's better still, with Mars and dozens of blue-white cluster stars in the same view.
You're not tied to one night. Mars moves past the cluster between about 23 June and 2 July, but the 27th and 28th are the closest. It's worth the effort, too, because this is the last easy-to-see Mars and Pleiades pairing until 2034. The main difficulty is how low and bright the dawn sky is, so pick a spot with a clear eastern horizon and look before it gets too light.
What to take outside tonight
The Bootids, the Moon and Antares are all naked-eye — but a pair of binoculars is what turns tonight's two best pairings into a proper session. They frame Mars and the blue Pleiades together in one field, and lift Antares' fiery colour beside the Moon. If you also want to hunt the asteroid, you'll need a small telescope. Here's what we'd reach for.
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Tonight's Sky at a Glance
Four events across two viewing windows. Here's how to plan your night and your early morning.
You don't have to catch all four for it to be worth it. If the evening is clear, head out after dark for the Moon, Antares and a patient watch for a stray Bootid. If you're up early, the Mars and Pleiades pairing low in the dawn is the highlight. Either way, it's a lot to see for one ordinary Saturday in June. Clear skies!
Sources:
- The most unpredictable meteor shower of the year peaks this week — Space.com
- What to know about the 2026 June Bootids — Discover Magazine
- Large asteroid to pass Earth safely on June 27 — EarthSky
- Mars Nears the Pleiades as the Strawberry Moon Approaches Full — When the Curves Line Up
- Visible planets and night sky guide for June and July — EarthSky
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