Where to Shoot in November 2026: Dark Arctic Nights, Then a Full Moon

November 2026 splits cleanly in two for night photography. Around the new moon on 9 November (07:02 UTC), Tromsø and Reykjavík get more than 13 hours a night of proper darkness with no moon in the sky. By 22 November that falls to zero, and it stays there to the end of the month's full-moon week. So chase the aurora in the first half, and save the second half for subjects that like a bright moon: Thailand's full-moon lantern festivals and Kyoto's late autumn colour. Mexico City's Day of the Dead opens the month and the Leonid meteor shower peaks in the middle. Every sun and moon time below was computed for this issue and checked against the US Naval Observatory (USNO).

November 2026 photography calendar at a glance

Northern lights in November 2026: go in the new-moon fortnight

The moon matters more than the calendar date in the Arctic. Aurora is faint compared with a bright moon, and at high latitude the moon can stay up all night around full. I computed, for each November night, how long the sun sits more than 12° below the horizon (dark enough for aurora photographs) while the moon is below the horizon, sampled every two minutes with refraction included.

The pattern is blunt. From 6 to 15 November Tromsø gets 13 to 14 hours of moonless dark each night, and Reykjavík gets 12.6 to 13.3 hours from 6 to 14 November. USNO confirms the extremes: on 10 November the moon never rises over Tromsø, and on 24 November it never sets. A moonlit aurora can still be lovely, because the moon lights the snow and the mountains, but you need a brighter display to see colour against it.

Tromsø also loses the sun altogether. USNO gives its last sunrise of 2026 as 11:20 on 27 November, with sunset at 11:42; from 28 November the sun stays below the horizon. That noon twilight is soft and blue, worth photographing for its own sake. If you are deciding between the two cities, Reykjavík has the guide: see our Iceland location guide, and for forecasting tools, what aurora alerts actually measure.

If you only have your phone: put it on something solid, turn on Night mode, and let the phone pick its longest exposure. Tap to focus on a distant light or the horizon first. Expect the camera to show more green than your eyes do.

Leonid meteor shower 2026: wait for the moon to set

The American Meteor Society gives the Leonids' peak night as 16 to 17 November, with the shower active from 6 to 30 November and a typical rate of about 15 meteors an hour under a dark sky. That is a modest shower, so treat it as a bonus on a clear night rather than a reason to travel.

The timing works in your favour. In London the moon, a waxing crescent about 41% lit, sets at 22:16 GMT on 16 November. The Leonid radiant (the point in Leo the meteors appear to come from) rises at about 22:22. By 03:00 the radiant is 40° up, and astronomical dawn comes at 05:24. So the useful window is roughly 23:00 to 05:15, the darker and the later the better. Get away from street lights and face roughly east or south-east, but not directly at Leo; meteors with longer trails appear away from the radiant.

If you only have your phone: a phone will catch only the brightest meteors. Use the main lens rather than the ultra-wide, prop the phone up, use Night mode and take frame after frame for an hour. You are playing the odds. A camera on a tripod with a wide lens and repeated exposures is far more likely to get one.

Day of the Dead in Mexico City: 29 October to 2 November

Mexico City's official tourism site lists the Grand Day of the Dead Parade on Saturday 31 October at 14:00, running along Paseo de la Reforma from the Diana Cazadora roundabout to the Zócalo. The monumental ofrenda (offering altar) in the Zócalo and the 12 community altars run from 29 October to 2 November, and the Zócalo façade illuminations from 29 October to 4 November. This year's Zócalo centrepiece is a 32-metre papier-mâché Catrina.

Shoot the parade from Reforma rather than the Zócalo, where crowds gather at the finish. The route runs north-east, and at 14:00 USNO puts the sun 48° up in the south-west, close to straight down the avenue behind the oncoming floats. Faces coming towards you will be backlit. Use that for glowing costumes and paper, or turn and shoot the floats after they pass, looking north-east, for front light. Come back to the Zócalo after dark for the illuminated façades, when the altar's marigolds and candles carry the frame.

For the quieter, older tradition, the city lists San Andrés Mixquic in Tláhuac from 31 October to 2 November. Its cemetery vigil is about families and graves, so ask before photographing people and keep the flash off. Our Mexico City location guide covers year-round viewpoints.

Kyoto autumn leaves 2026: the maples may peak in December

If you have booked Kyoto for mid-November expecting peak red maples, check the forecast again. The Japan Meteorological Corporation's 1 October forecast puts Kyoto's red maple peak around 11 December, six days behind its 5 December average, and the yellow ginkgo peak around 27 November. Its next update is due in early November. Forecasts move between updates, so treat any single date as a guide rather than a promise.

What that means in practice: late November is the safer bet for ginkgo yellow, with maples still turning; early December is the bet for full red. Either way, go at opening time for the emptiest frames, and use overcast days; flat light keeps bright red leaves from blowing out on a phone. Our Kyoto location guide lists vantage points that work in any season.

Loy Krathong and Yi Peng 2026: a full-moon festival

Both festivals follow the lunar calendar. The astronomical full moon is 24 November at 14:53 UTC, which is 21:53 in Thailand. Published 2026 guides give 24 to 25 November for Yi Peng in Chiang Mai and 25 November for Loy Krathong nationally. I could not reach the Tourism Authority of Thailand's own 2026 schedule during this run, so confirm dates, and any lantern-release rules, with the Tourism Authority of Thailand or Chiang Mai's provincial office before you book.

The photograph to plan for is floating krathong (small decorated floats with candles) on the water, not a sky full of lanterns you may not be allowed to release. In Bangkok, riverbanks and park lakes work; in Chiang Mai, the Ping River. A bright moon over the water is a gift here. Expose for the candle flames and let the shadows go dark. See our Bangkok location guide.

Short days at home: plan around a 16:11 sunset

If you are not travelling, November's main change is the clock. In London on 15 November, USNO gives sunrise at 07:18 and sunset at 16:11 GMT, with civil twilight ending at 16:48. Golden hour, the warm, low light near sunset, now falls in the middle of a working afternoon, and blue hour (the deep-blue twilight just after sunset) falls before most people leave the office. A lunchtime walk with a low sun gets long shadows all day; on 15 November USNO has London's noon sun only 20° above the horizon. Our golden hour guide explains how to use it, and the London guide has places to point the camera.