Eyes to the sky for the peak of the Orionid meteor shower
Look up Monday night to see meteors from Halley's Comet streaking through the sky above.
Even though Halley's Comet won't be returning to our skies until 2061, each year, we see two meteor showers to remind us that it's out there, and one of those meteor showers is peaking Monday night!
Right now, Earth is passing through a trail of debris in space, left behind long ago by one of the most famous comets of all time — 1P/Halley. The tiny meteoroids contained in this debris stream consist of bits of rock and ice that blew off the comet during its periodic passes around the Sun. When Earth sweeps these meteoroids up, they produce bright flashes of light that streak through our night sky, resulting in two different meteor showers.
The first — the eta Aquariids — peaks in early May, and occurs due to Earth passing through the 'outbound' part of Halley's trail.
Comet Halley's path through the inner solar system, which it follows once every 76 years, is shown in this graphic, along with where Earth intercepts the comet's debris stream, in both May and October, when the eta Aquariid and Orionid meteor showers peak, respectively. (NASA/Scott Sutherland)
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The second, which is happening right now, comes from the 'inbound' part of Halley's trail, and is called the Orionid meteor shower.
This meteor shower runs from October 2 through November 12, and for most nights during that time, it delivers only a few meteors every hour. Due to how fast the meteoroids are travelling when they plunge into Earth's atmosphere (66 kilometers per second), some show up as exceptionally bright fireballs!
However, during the Orionids' peak, which lasts from late on the night of October 20 through the predawn hours of October 21, we can see up to 20 meteors per hour. That's an average of one every 3 minutes or so!
The 'radiant' of the Orionid meteor shower (the location in the sky where the meteors appear to originate from) is shown here, near the constellation of the same name, at 3 a.m. local time on the night of October 20-21, 2025. (Stellarium/Scott Sutherland)
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When the shower begins, at around 10 p.m., the radiant is fairly low to the horizon. So, observers tend to see around about 5-10 meteors per hour at that time. As the radiant climbs higher in the sky throughout the night, the number of meteors increases until we get the true peak in the hours before morning twilight.
In 2025, the Orionids peak is perfectly timed to coincide with the New Moon, which occurs at 8:26 a.m. EDT on the 21st. This gives us ideal sky conditions that night, with no moonlight to potentially spoil the show. In fact, we haven't seen an Orionid meteor shower timed this well since 1979, when the New Moon was at 10:23 p.m. EDT on the 20th, and we won't see another like it until 2044!
For the best chance to see Orionid meteors, find somewhere far from city lights, with a good view where you can see as much of the sky as possible. The meteors may originate from near the constellation Orion, but they can appear at any point in the sky overhead.
Also, give your eyes about 20 minutes to adjust the dark (although 30-40 minutes is ideal). Avoid any bright lights in the area, including streetlights, car headlights, and even your cellphone screen.
If getting out of the city isn't possible, pick a dark suburban area, such as a backyard sheltered from surrounding streetlights by trees. This can still be a good place to watch from, although the effects of urban light pollution on the sky will reduce the number of meteors that will show up.
(Editor's note: a previous version of this article stated that the last time the Orionids peak was this well-timed with the New Moon was in 2006. In fact, we need to go all the way back to 1979 to find better timing. This has been corrected in the text above, and we apologize for any confusion.)