The Night Sky in Indiana
This year's meteor showers, moon phases, and the darkest places to watch from in Indiana.
Data updated: August 2026Sources & method · Corrections
The best stargazing in Indiana comes on clear, moonless nights, and January, November and December give you the most of them to work with — about 14.7 hours of darkness at the December peak, computed from Indiana's own sun times. Below: this year's meteor-shower peaks and how bright the moon will be for each, a month-by-month new- and full-moon calendar, and the darkest places to watch from.
Indiana's sky quality splits sharply along an urban-rural line: the Indianapolis metro core and the Chicago-Gary light dome spilling across the northwestern corner wash out stars for a large share of the state's population, and the flat, open farmland covering most of central and northern Indiana lets that glow travel a long way with little to block it. Conditions improve in the hillier, more forested south, where ridgelines and tree cover around towns like Nashville and Bloomington cut down on scattered light more effectively than open cropland does. On a clear, moonless night in one of these darker pockets, the Milky Way's band is visible to the naked eye and a modest telescope will pull in a respectable list of deep-sky targets.
Dark-sky places in Indiana
- Hoosier National Forest — Indiana's largest tract of public land, stretching across several counties in the south-central part of the state, has enough backroad pull-offs and trailhead parking far from any town that finding an unobstructed, dark horizon is mostly a matter of picking a clear night.
- Brown County State Park and Yellowwood State Forest — The rolling hill country around Nashville, Indiana is about as dark as the state gets outside its remote southern forests -- the terrain and tree cover block sky glow from surrounding small towns far better than the flat farmland found through most of central Indiana.
- Harmonie State Park — Tucked into one of Indiana's least populated corners along the Wabash River in the far southwest, this park sits well clear of any sizable metro area, and its open river-bottom fields make for an easy, low-effort dark-sky night.
- Middle Fork River Forest Preserve (just across the Illinois state line) — Indiana's own certified DarkSky place is Beverly Shores, an International Dark Sky Community on the Lake Michigan shore by the Indiana Dunes — a town that retired and retrofitted its streetlights rather than a park you drive out to. For a certified dark sky park, the nearest one -- an International Dark Sky Park in Vermilion County, Illinois -- is an easy day trip from west-central Indiana towns like West Lafayette, and it's worth the short drive for genuinely certified dark-sky conditions.
- Rural east-central Indiana farm country — Away from Muncie and Richmond, the quieter farm roads stretching toward the Ohio line offer another reasonably dark option for stargazers on the state's east side who don't want to drive all the way south.
Ranger programs, star parties and opening hours change season to season — check with the site before you drive out.
The sky this month (August)
The moon in August: New moon Aug 12 · Full moon Aug 28. Darkest skies fall around Aug 7–Aug 17, near the new moon.
Meteor showers peaking in August:
| Meteor shower | Peak | Meteors/hr | Moon | Best time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perseids | Aug 12 | 100 | 0% near-new | late evening to dawn |
Meteor showers in 2026
| Meteor shower | Peak | Meteors/hr | Moon | Best time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrantids | Jan 3 | 120 | 100% near-full | after midnight into dawn |
| Lyrids | Apr 22 | 18 | 29% crescent | after midnight |
| Eta Aquariids | May 6 | 50 | 83% gibbous | pre-dawn (better in the South) |
| Southern Delta Aquariids | Jul 30 | 25 | 100% near-full | pre-dawn |
| Perseids | Aug 12 | 100 | 0% near-new | late evening to dawn |
| Draconids | Oct 8 | 10 | 7% crescent | early evening |
| Orionids | Oct 21 | 20 | 74% gibbous | after midnight |
| Southern Taurids | Nov 5 | 5 | 16% crescent | late evening (slow, bright fireballs) |
| Northern Taurids | Nov 12 | 5 | 8% crescent | late evening (slow, bright fireballs) |
| Leonids | Nov 17 | 15 | 48% quarter moon | after midnight |
| Geminids | Dec 14 | 150 | 22% crescent | evening to dawn (best all year) |
| Ursids | Dec 22 | 10 | 95% near-full | after midnight |
Moon phases in 2026
| Month | New moon (darkest) | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| January | Jan 18 | Jan 3 |
| February | Feb 17 | Feb 1 |
| March | Mar 18 | Mar 3 |
| April | Apr 17 | Apr 1 |
| May | May 16 | May 1, May 31 |
| June | Jun 14 | Jun 29 |
| July | Jul 14 | Jul 29 |
| August | Aug 12 | Aug 28 |
| September | Sep 10 | Sep 26 |
| October | Oct 10 | Oct 26 |
| November | Nov 9 | Nov 24 |
| December | Dec 8 | Dec 23 |
Which Indiana nights are worth the drive
The year's meteor peaks with the moon already worked out, and the darkest places in Indiana to watch them from.
The complete The Night Sky over Indiana
A stargazing companion for the state that does not expire: the meteor calendar, the darkest places, and how to read any year's sky.
Want it on paper? See the printable The Night Sky over Indiana.