Orionid meteor shower 2028

When and where to look

The best night is the night of 20 to 21 October. Seen from both hemispheres after midnight, when Orion is up.

The meteors seem to come from the radiant, in Orion, north of Betelgeuse, but they appear all over the sky. Look about halfway up and 40 to 60 degrees away from it, where the trails are longest.

From	Radiant at its highest
London	55°
New York	65°
Delhi	77°
São Paulo	51°
Sydney	40°

The higher the radiant, the more meteors you see. When it is low, the ones you do see skim the horizon in long, slow trails.

The Moon

A 13% crescent Moon is low and faint, so the sky stays fairly dark.

Up to 20 an hour is the rate under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. From a typical dark site expect a third to a half of that; from a town, a handful.

What is happening

Every year the Earth crosses a stream of dust shed by Halley's Comet. The grains, most no bigger than sand, hit the top of the atmosphere at 66 km/s and burn up 80 to 120 km above the ground, each one a streak of light.

Because they all arrive on parallel paths, perspective makes them seem to spread from one point, the radiant, like a road vanishing into the distance. They are named after Orion, the constellation their radiant lies in.

How to watch

• Get away from lights. A dark field or hill outside town shows several times as many meteors as a garden in the city.
• Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes to adapt, and keep your phone screen dim or red.
• Lie back on a reclining chair or a mat and take in as much sky as you can. No telescope or binoculars: they show too little sky.
• Be patient. Meteors come in bursts and lulls; give it at least an hour.
• To photograph them, put a phone or camera on a tripod, point it about 45 degrees from the radiant and take long exposures one after another.

See it in 3D

The Earth, where the meteors fall, rendered live from today's real positions by our 3D viewer. Press play to load it here, or open the full viewer to fly anywhere in the solar system.

Load the live 3D view

Open the Earth in the 3D viewer →

Get a reminder

We email you a day or two before, with the time. Leave your email once and we send a code to confirm it; nothing else arrives unless you ask for it.

Get this night as a print: the stars, the planets and the Moon over your own town, on a star map. Or see the whole sky that night, free.

Tonight's sky from where you are, live, is in the online planetarium.

Questions

When do the Orionids peak in 2028?

The peak is predicted for 21 October 2028 at 06:45 UTC. The shower is active from 2 October to 7 November, so the nights either side are worth watching too; the best is the night of 20 to 21 October, after midnight.

How many meteors will I see?

Up to about 20 an hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. Most watchers see a third to a half of that from a dark site, fewer from towns.

Will the Moon spoil it?

A 13% crescent Moon is low and faint, so the sky stays fairly dark.

Where should I look?

Anywhere, though meteors appear longest 40 to 60 degrees from the radiant, in Orion, north of Betelgeuse. Look about halfway up the darkest part of the sky.

Do I need a telescope?

No. Meteors are best with the naked eye: binoculars and telescopes show far too little sky.

When are the Orionids next?

21 October 2029, with the peak at 12:54 UTC and a 99% Moon.

More in the sky

Every eclipse, meteor shower and planet at opposition, or the whole calendar. Tonight's planets are on what is visible tonight, and the next time four or more gather on one side of the Sun is on planet parades.

Sources

• International Meteor Organization: meteor shower calendar
• Wikipedia: the Orionids
• NASA: meteors and meteorites
• The times and positions on this page come from our own sky calendar, built on the sources above, the same one the 3D viewer runs on.