The dark Moon backlit by the Sun during the solar eclipse seen from NASA's Orion spacecraft on April 6, 2026, with part of Orion in the foreground. During this eclipse the Artemis II crew saw meteoroid impact flashes

Observing Guide · Lunar Impact Flashes · Updated for the Geminids 2026

Can You See a Meteor Hit the Moon? How to Watch for Lunar Impact Flashes

Q: Can you see a meteor hit the Moon from Earth?

Yes. Meteoroids hitting the Moon produce brief flashes of light on its unlit side. Most are magnitude 7 to 11 and last a fraction of a second, so they are recorded with a telescope and video camera. Rare bright ones, such as NASA's March 17, 2013 flash at about magnitude 4, could be seen with the naked eye.

Q: How often do meteors hit the Moon?

Constantly. Small particles hit every second. Rocks big enough to make a flash visible from Earth, from a few grams upward, are caught at a rate of a few per hour of observing by large monitoring telescopes, and more during major meteor showers. NASA recorded 45 Geminid flashes in about 10 hours in 2015.

Q: Did the Artemis II astronauts see meteors hit the Moon?

Yes. NASA's Artemis II preliminary lunar science report, released on October 7, 2026, says the crew saw five impact flashes on the dark Moon during the solar eclipse they witnessed behind the Moon on April 6, 2026. The flashes were not caught on camera; the crew marked them by hand on a tablet image.

Q: What telescope do I need to record lunar impact flashes?

About 8 inches (20 cm) of aperture or more, ideally at f/6 or faster, with a sensitive video camera recording uncompressed video at 25 to 30 frames per second. A tracking mount helps. Smaller telescopes can work if they record the earthshine on the Moon's dark side.

Q: When is the best time to look for impact flashes?

When the Moon is a crescent or near quarter phase, roughly 10% to 55% lit, so a large dark area is visible. Major meteor showers raise the odds when the Moon is on the opposite side of the sky from the shower's radiant. In 2026 the best chance is the evenings of December 13 and 14, during the Geminids.

Q: Are the Geminids good for lunar impact flashes in 2026?

Yes. On the evenings of December 13 and 14, 2026 the Moon is a 20 to 29 percent lit crescent about 140 to 150 degrees from the Geminid radiant, so its dark side faces the Geminid stream. That is close to 2015, NASA's most productive Geminid campaign. The window is short because the crescent sets in the mid-evening.

Q: How big is a rock that makes an impact flash?

Most are small. ESA's NELIOTA project found that over three quarters of impactors weigh between 1 and 200 grams. The brightest recorded events came from much larger rocks: about 40 kg for NASA's 2013 flash, which left an 18-metre crater, and about 45 kg for the flash during the January 2019 lunar eclipse.

Yes. The Moon has no air to burn up incoming space rocks, so they hit the ground at tens of kilometres per second and release a split-second flash of light. In April 2026 the Artemis II astronauts saw five of them with their own eyes. From your backyard, a mid-size telescope and a video camera can catch them too, and December’s Geminid meteor shower gives an unusually good chance this year.

<0.5 sTypical flash length

1–200 gMost impactors

5Flashes seen by Artemis II

Dec 13–14Geminids: best 2026 window

By Telescope Advisor Editorial Team | Published: October 28, 2026 | Updated: October 28, 2026 | Reviewed & approved by Juhi Sahni, Senior Editor | Editorial Standards

Elena Reyes

Senior Science Editor

Covers NASA missions, space science discoveries, and astronomical events for Telescope Advisor. Translates complex astrophysical research into practical insights for backyard observers. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Content reviewed by our editorial team. Research and drafting assisted by AI to ensure unbiased, data-driven analysis. Learn more about our editorial process.

Quick Answer: Can You See a Meteor Hit the Moon?

• Yes, but usually not with your eyes alone. Rocks from a few grams to tens of kilograms strike the Moon constantly. Each one makes a point of light on the dark part of the Moon that lasts a fraction of a second.
• Most flashes are faint. Typical flashes are about magnitude 7 to 11, too faint and too brief for the eye. A few bright ones, like the March 17, 2013 and January 21, 2019 flashes, reached about magnitude 4 and could have been seen without a telescope.
• How amateurs catch them: a telescope of about 8 inches (20 cm) or more, a sensitive video camera recording at 25–30 frames per second, and free detection software. Point at the Moon’s unlit side when the Moon is a crescent or near quarter phase.
• Best chance in 2026: the evenings of December 13 and 14, during the Geminid meteor shower. The Moon is a 20–29% lit crescent with its dark side facing the incoming Geminid stream, close to the set-up of NASA’s most productive Geminid run in 2015.
• The news hook: NASA’s Artemis II lunar science report, released October 7, 2026, says the crew saw five impact flashes on the dark Moon during their April 6 flyby.

Moon phases, altitudes and impact geometry were computed by Telescope Advisor from the JPL DE421 ephemeris using the Skyfield library. Facts about impact flashes come from NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, ESA’s NELIOTA project, the British Astronomical Association, ALPO and peer-reviewed papers, listed at the end of this page.

What the Artemis II Astronauts Saw

On April 6, 2026, the four Artemis II astronauts flew around the far side of the Moon in NASA’s Orion spacecraft. For nearly an hour the Moon blocked the Sun, giving the crew a solar eclipse no one on Earth could see, and a dark lunar disk to stare at. Against that darkness they spotted brief pinpoints of light: rocks from space slamming into the surface.

NASA’s preliminary lunar science report, released on October 7, 2026 together with more than 800 gigabytes of mission data, settles on five impact flashes. Early accounts in April had mentioned as many as six. The crew marked each flash by hand on a tablet image of the eclipsed Moon. Mission scientist Jennifer Heldmann said each was a tiny, colourless point of light that was gone in under a second. NASA’s team thinks they are probably the faintest lunar impacts anyone has spotted without optical help.

The flashes were not caught on camera, so the astronauts’ own observations are the record. That is one reason scientists value them: they show what a trained human eye can pick out from close range, and they add to the count of how often rocks of different sizes hit the Moon. That count matters for anyone planning to build a base there.

See the crew’s annotated tablet screenshot on NASA’s image library. The three ink colours on it are simply each astronaut’s pen: Reid Wiseman in blue, Victor Glover in green and Jeremy Hansen in red. The full dataset is public in NASA’s Planetary Data System.

The Moon backlit by the Sun during the eclipse seen from Orion on April 6, 2026. Earthshine makes the left edge of the Moon slightly brighter, and Saturn and Mars appear as bright dots — The Moon eclipsing the Sun, photographed by Orion on April 6, 2026. Earthshine brightens the left edge; the dot below the Moon’s lower right is Saturn, and the one at the far right is Mars. Credit: NASA.

What a Lunar Impact Flash Is

On Earth, a sand-grain or pebble-sized meteoroid burns up as a shooting star 80 to 100 km above the ground. The Moon has no atmosphere to stop it, so the same rock hits the surface at full speed. A tiny fraction of its energy of motion, less than about 1%, comes out as light from a puff of vaporised and molten rock. Seen from Earth, that is a star-like point on the Moon that appears and fades within a fraction of a second.

Property	Typical value	Source
Duration	Usually less than half a second, often under 0.1 s	NASA Meteoroid Environment Office; BAA
Brightness	Mostly magnitude 7 to 11; rare bright events near magnitude 4	NASA Geminid study (2015); 2025 Geminid campaign; NASA 2013 and MIDAS 2019 events
Impactor mass	Most 1 to 200 grams; bright events tens of kilograms	NELIOTA (ESA / National Observatory of Athens)
Flash temperature	Mostly 2,000 to 4,500 K	NELIOTA two-colour measurements
Where to see them	Only on the unlit part of the Moon; the sunlit part is far too bright	NASA MEO; ALPO

Because a flash is brief and lands at a random spot, most are found by video cameras and software rather than by eye. Professional programmes watch the Moon for hours to catch a handful. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has run a monitoring programme since 2006, using two 14-inch telescopes side by side so that every candidate can be checked on both. ESA’s NELIOTA project uses the 1.2-metre Kryoneri telescope in Greece with two cameras, one in red and one in near-infrared light, which lets it measure the temperature of each flash.

Famous Flashes Caught on Camera

November 18, 1999 · Leonids

The first confirmed flashes

During the 1999 Leonid meteor storm, amateur observers in the US recorded flashes on the Moon’s dark side, coordinated by David Dunham. One was first spotted by eye by Brian Cudnik and then found on video. In all, six were confirmed, the first lunar impact flashes ever verified. The brightest were estimated to come from meteoroids of about a tenth of a kilogram.

March 17, 2013 · Mare Imbrium

NASA’s brightest flash

NASA’s cameras caught a flash that glowed like a 4th-magnitude star for about a second, nearly 10 times brighter than anything the programme had seen before. A rock of about 40 kg and 30–40 cm across hit at roughly 25 km per second. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later found the new crater, about 18 metres wide.

January 21, 2019 · Lunar eclipse

A hit during totality

Shortly after a total lunar eclipse began, a flash lasting 0.28 seconds was filmed by the Spanish MIDAS survey and noticed by many amateurs watching the eclipse. Its peak brightness was about magnitude 4.2. The team estimated a 45 kg rock, 30–60 cm across, hitting at about 61,000 km/h and leaving a crater up to 15 metres wide.

Systematic monitoring has turned these one-off events into data. ESA’s NELIOTA project validated 192 flashes between 2017 and 2023, with more than three quarters of the impactors weighing between 1 and 200 grams. During the December 2025 Geminids, a new European station built for continuous monitoring, part of a campaign launched by the science team of ESA’s planned LUMIO lunar CubeSat, recorded 53 possible flashes and confirmed 11, ranging from magnitude 7.5 to 10.4.

Can You See One With Your Own Eyes?

It is possible but very unlikely. The 2013 and 2019 flashes were about as bright as the faintest stars you can see from a suburban garden, so anyone looking at the right spot at the right second could have seen them. In 2019 several people watching the eclipse reported the flash by eye. Events that bright are rare, though, and most flashes are 100 to 1,000 times fainter.

Through a telescope eyepiece your chances improve a little, and a few observers have reported visual flashes. Without a recording, however, a visual sighting cannot be confirmed: you cannot rule out a cosmic ray hitting your eye, a satellite glint or simply a tired eye. That is why a video camera is the standard tool. The Artemis II astronauts were a special case: the Sun was hidden behind the Moon, the whole disk was dark, and they were far closer than we are.

How to Record Lunar Impact Flashes Yourself

Impact-flash monitoring is one of the few areas where backyard equipment produces useful science. The British Astronomical Association and ALPO, the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, both run programmes that welcome amateur video. Here is the basic method:

Use a telescope of about 8 inches (20 cm) or larger. The BAA suggests a focal ratio of f/6 or faster, so the whole dark side of the Moon fits on the camera chip and faint flashes are concentrated into a few pixels. A focal reducer helps on slower scopes such as Schmidt-Cassegrains. Smaller or slower instruments still work if they can record earthshine, the faint light on the Moon’s night side reflected from Earth.
Choose a tracking mount if you can. A motorised mount keeps the Moon in the frame for long runs. A Dobsonian also works, but you will have to nudge it regularly.
Attach a sensitive video camera. Record at 25–30 frames per second if possible; 10 frames per second is a workable minimum. Professional systems use 30 frames per second. Record uncompressed monochrome video (for example SER or raw AVI), never compressed formats such as MPEG, which can erase a faint flash.
Frame the dark side and push the gain up. Put the unlit part of the Moon in the field and keep the bright crescent out of it or at the edge, so it does not flood the image with glare. You want earthshine just visible on screen.
Get accurate time stamps. Synchronise your computer clock to an internet time server before you start. Accurate timing lets a flash in your video be matched against other observers’ recordings.
Run detection software. LunarScan, written by Peter Gural and distributed through NASA, and ALFI, from the Europlanet programme, search hours of video for short flashes. The BAA recommends running recordings through both.
Confirm before you announce. Single-frame dots are often cosmic rays hitting the camera sensor, and moving dots are satellites. A genuine flash appears in at least two frames, or is recorded at the same moment by a second telescope or a second observer.
Report it. Send candidates to ALPO’s Lunar Meteoritic Impact Search programme and upload to the Lunar Impact Flashes database at lif.mi.imati.cnr.it, which coordinated campaigns use. Negative results, nights with no flashes, are useful too.

New to filming the Moon? Start with our guides on how to photograph the Moon with a telescope and the best planetary cameras.

When to Look: Moon Phases and Meteor Showers

Moon phase. You need a good area of unlit Moon, but also enough Moon above the horizon to observe. NASA’s programme observes when the Moon is between 10% and 55% lit, from new Moon to first quarter in the evening and from last quarter to new Moon before dawn. That gives roughly 10 to 12 usable nights a month. Near full Moon there is no dark area left to watch.

Meteor showers. Random “sporadic” meteoroids hit the Moon every night, but during a major shower many more arrive from one direction. Flashes from a shower also have a known impact speed, which lets researchers estimate the size of each rock far more precisely. In 2010, for example, NASA found that Geminid impacts made up more than half of all the flashes it recorded that year.

Geometry. Shower meteoroids only hit the half of the Moon that faces the shower’s radiant, the point in the sky they appear to come from. For those impacts to land on the side we can see, the Moon should sit well away from the radiant in our sky, ideally on the opposite side. For the flashes to be visible, that impacted area must also be in darkness. The best set-up is therefore a crescent Moon on the far side of the sky from the radiant. Our Skyfield model of this geometry reproduces the conditions of NASA’s best Geminid nights. In 2015, for example, the Moon was a 12% crescent 160° from the Geminid radiant, and NASA recorded 45 Geminid flashes in about 10 hours.

The Geminid Window: December 13–14, 2026

The Geminids are the strongest annual meteor shower, peaking on the night of December 13–14, 2026. New Moon falls on December 9 (00:52 UT, which is the evening of December 8 in US time zones), so on the peak evenings the Moon is a waxing crescent, about 20–29% lit and 140–152° from the Geminid radiant. Its earthshine-lit night side faces the oncoming Geminid stream, in geometry close to NASA’s record 2015 Geminid campaign, when the Moon was a 12% crescent 160° from the radiant. It is a good year to try.

The catch is that the crescent Moon sets in the mid-evening, so the observing window is short. Start when twilight has faded, around 5:30 p.m. local time, and keep going while the Moon is at least 15° high:

Evening (local standard time)	Moon lit	Moon height at 6 p.m.	Usable until about
Sunday, December 13	~20%	21–29°	7:00 p.m. (New York, Chicago); 7:15 p.m. (Denver); 7:30 p.m. (Los Angeles)
Monday, December 14	~29%	30–38°	8:00 p.m. (New York, Chicago); 8:15 p.m. (Denver); 8:30 p.m. (Los Angeles)
Tuesday, December 15	~38%	39–47°	9:15–9:30 p.m.; Geminid activity is falling and less of the dark side faces the stream

Times computed with Skyfield for New York, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. “Usable” means the Moon is at least about 15° above the western horizon. Geminid activity stays high for a day or so either side of the peak, so both of the first two evenings are worthwhile.

What about the Leonids? The Leonids peak around November 17, 2026, with the Moon near first quarter and well placed opposite the Leonid radiant. Leonid meteoroids are the fastest of any major shower, about 71 km per second, so even small ones flash brightly. This year’s Leonid rates are low, only about 10–15 meteors an hour on Earth, and half the Moon’s visible face is sunlit, so the odds are lower than for the Geminids. It is still a good night to practise your set-up. See our Leonid meteor shower 2026 guide and Geminid meteor shower 2026 guide.

Telescopes and Cameras That Work for Impact Flashes

Aperture and a fast, sensitive camera matter most. An 8-inch scope is the usual starting point, and the same set-up doubles as an excellent planetary imaging rig the rest of the year:

Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian

An 8-inch f/6 Dobsonian: exactly the aperture and focal ratio the BAA suggests, at the lowest cost. You will need to nudge it to keep the Moon centred, as it does not track.

Check price on Amazon →

Celestron NexStar 8SE

An 8-inch tracking Schmidt-Cassegrain that holds the Moon in the frame for long video runs. At f/10 it benefits from an f/6.3 focal reducer to fit the dark side on the camera chip.

Check price on Amazon →

Celestron NexStar 6SE

A lighter 6-inch tracking option. It will pick up fewer of the faintest flashes than an 8-inch, but it records earthshine well and is easy to carry out for a short evening window.

Check price on Amazon →

Video cameras

Any USB planetary camera that records uncompressed video at 25 frames per second or more can catch flashes. Monochrome sensors are more sensitive, but colour models work.

ZWO ASI120MC-S

A budget USB planetary camera that records raw video at high frame rates and works with free capture software such as SharpCap and FireCapture.

View on Amazon →

Celestron NexImage 10

A straightforward planetary camera with a larger sensor, which helps fit more of the Moon's dark side into each frame.

View on Amazon →

Comparing more options? See our guides to the best telescopes for viewing the Moon and the best cameras for planetary astrophotography.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you see a meteor hit the Moon from Earth?

Yes. Meteoroids hitting the Moon produce brief flashes of light on its unlit side. Most are magnitude 7 to 11 and last a fraction of a second, so they are recorded with a telescope and video camera. Rare bright ones, such as NASA’s March 17, 2013 flash at about magnitude 4, could be seen with the naked eye.

How often do meteors hit the Moon?

Constantly. Small particles hit every second. Rocks big enough to make a flash visible from Earth, from a few grams upward, are caught at a rate of a few per hour of observing by large monitoring telescopes, and more during major meteor showers. NASA recorded 45 Geminid flashes in about 10 hours in 2015.

Did the Artemis II astronauts see meteors hit the Moon?

Yes. NASA’s Artemis II preliminary lunar science report, released on October 7, 2026, says the crew saw five impact flashes on the dark Moon during the solar eclipse they witnessed behind the Moon on April 6, 2026. The flashes were not caught on camera; the crew marked them by hand on a tablet image.

What telescope do I need to record lunar impact flashes?

About 8 inches (20 cm) of aperture or more, ideally at f/6 or faster, with a sensitive video camera recording uncompressed video at 25 to 30 frames per second. A tracking mount helps. Smaller telescopes can work if they record the earthshine on the Moon’s dark side.

When is the best time to look for impact flashes?

When the Moon is a crescent or near quarter phase, roughly 10% to 55% lit, so a large dark area is visible. Major meteor showers raise the odds when the Moon is on the opposite side of the sky from the shower’s radiant. In 2026 the best chance is the evenings of December 13 and 14, during the Geminids.

Are the Geminids good for lunar impact flashes in 2026?

Yes. On the evenings of December 13 and 14, 2026 the Moon is a 20 to 29 percent lit crescent about 140 to 150 degrees from the Geminid radiant, so its dark side faces the Geminid stream. That is close to 2015, NASA’s most productive Geminid campaign. The window is short because the crescent sets in the mid-evening.

How big is a rock that makes an impact flash?

Most are small. ESA’s NELIOTA project found that over three quarters of impactors weigh between 1 and 200 grams. The brightest recorded events came from much larger rocks: about 40 kg for NASA’s 2013 flash, which left an 18-metre crater, and about 45 kg for the flash during the January 2019 lunar eclipse.

Related Guides

Sources, Method & Image Credits

• Moon phases, altitudes and the shower impact geometry: computed by Telescope Advisor with the Skyfield library and the NASA JPL DE421 ephemeris, using radiant positions of RA 112°, Dec +32.5° (Geminids) and RA 152°, Dec +22° (Leonids).
• Artemis II impact flashes: NASA, Artemis II lunar science data release (Oct 7, 2026), Science News (Oct 16, 2026), Nature World News (Oct 9, 2026), NASA image art002e016252.
• Monitoring methods and phase window: NASA Meteoroid Environment Office, British Astronomical Association, Observing Lunar Impact Flashes, ALPO Lunar Meteoritic Impact Program.
• March 17, 2013 impact: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA, LRO finds the crater, Astronomy magazine.
• January 21, 2019 impact: Royal Astronomical Society, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, International Meteor Organization.
• 1999 Leonid flashes: NASA APOD, December 8, 1999, IAU Circular 7320 via Spaceweather.com.
• NELIOTA: National Observatory of Athens, NELIOTA 6.5-year results, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2024), ESA.
• Geminid impacts: EarthSky, NASA Technical Reports Server, 2025 Geminid lunar impact flash observations (arXiv), American Meteor Society calendar.
• Images: the eclipsed Moon from Orion, NASA image art002e009571 (April 6, 2026). US Government work, public domain.

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