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☄️ The Orionids meteor shower

Fast meteors, from the same comet as the Eta Aquariids. Active from 2 October to 7 November.

The next peak · in 356 days

22 October 2027 at 00:32 UTC

Up to 20 meteors an hour under a dark sky. The Moon is 58% lit that night. Some moonlight, so fewer faint meteors.

The best hours are usually after midnight and before dawn, on the night of the peak and the night before.

The next few years

21 October 2028 at 06:42 UTCMoon 13% lit · A dark sky: a good year to watch.
21 October 2029 at 12:51 UTCMoon 99% lit · Bright moonlight hides all but the brightest meteors.
21 October 2030 at 19:00 UTCMoon 29% lit · Some moonlight, so fewer faint meteors.

At its peak: Up to 20 meteors an hour under a dark sky
Active: 2 October to 7 November
Seems to come from: Orion
Where to see it: From both halves of Earth
Made by: Dust from Halley’s Comet

How to watch

Get away from city lights if you can, and give your eyes 20 minutes to get used to the dark. Don’t look at your phone.
Lie back and look at a wide stretch of sky. Meteors appear anywhere, though their trails point back to Orion.
No telescope or binoculars: they show too little of the sky. Your eyes are best.
“Up to 20 an hour” is for a perfectly dark sky. From a town, expect a fraction of that.

Other meteor showers

All of them

Quadrantids Lyrids Eta Aquariids Perseids Leonids Geminids Ursids

Peak dates from the International Meteor Organization’s list of showers, worked out for each year; the Moon worked out with Astronomy Engine. Times are UTC until the page has loaded, then your own time zone.