Orionids meteor shower
Next peak: 21 October 2026, 18:00 UTC. Up to 20 meteors an hour under an ideally dark sky.
The second shower from the dust of Halley's Comet. Very fast meteors, often with glowing trains. The radiant lies near Orion's club; best in the second half of the night.
The radiant lies in the constellation Orion. The meteors appear all over the sky, though; their trails only point back to it.
Peaks until 2030
| Peak (UTC) | Moon | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct 2026, 18:00 | 78 % | poor, bright moon |
| 22 Oct 2027, 00:00 | 58 % | fair |
| 21 Oct 2028, 06:00 | 13 % | good, little moonlight |
| 21 Oct 2029, 12:00 | 99 % | poor, bright moon |
| 21 Oct 2030, 19:00 | 29 % | good, little moonlight |
Moon: how much of its disc is lit. The nights before and after the peak are often hardly weaker.
When you see the most
- London: around 05:15 local time, the radiant 54° up
- New York: around 05:15 local time, the radiant 65° up
- Sydney: around 05:00 local time, the radiant 40° up
Best far from lights; give your eyes a quarter of an hour to adapt, no binoculars, with as much sky in view as possible. The higher the radiant, the more meteors.