Overview
- The shower is expected to reach its maximum overnight on Oct. 21–22, 2026, with the International Meteor Organization’s ideal zenithal rate near 20 meteors per hour and typical dark-sky counts of about 10–20 per hour.
- A waxing gibbous Moon will brighten much of the night but will set a few hours after midnight, so the best chance to see the shower is after moonset and before local sunrise.
- Observers should go to a dark site away from streetlights, allow 20–30 minutes for eyes to adapt, lie back to watch a broad swath of sky, and avoid telescopes or binoculars for meteor hunting.
- Orionid meteors come from debris shed by Comet 1P/Halley and strike the atmosphere at roughly 66 km per second, producing fast streaks that often leave long, glowing trains.
- The shower is active from about Oct. 2 through Nov. 7, so if clouds or moonlight block the peak night skywatchers can try the nights before or after Oct. 21–22, and Halley’s Comet itself is due to return around 2061.