Meteor showers · 2026
Orionids 2026: when and where to look
The Orionids peaked on the night of Oct 21-22. They stay active until Nov 7, a few an hour at most from here on.
The Moon is 79% lit and up most of the night, so its glow will hide the fainter meteors. You'll still catch the bright ones; keep the Moon behind you.
Fast, with glowing trails that can hang in the sky for a second or two. Best in the hours before dawn.
From your city
The best night and time, which way to look, and how many to expect where you are.
or pick a place:
The best time from these cities
| City | Best night | Best time | Radiant | Dark place | City | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai, CN | Oct 21-22 | 4:06 AM GMT+8 | 75° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:06 AM GMT+8 · 75° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Beijing, CN | Oct 21-22 | 4:26 AM GMT+8 | 66° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:26 AM GMT+8 · 66° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Delhi, IN | Oct 21-22 | 4:35 AM GMT+5:30 | 77° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:35 AM GMT+5:30 · 77° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Istanbul, TR | Oct 21-22 | 5:14 AM GMT+3 | 65° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 5:14 AM GMT+3 · 65° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Lagos, NG | Oct 21-22 | 4:59 AM GMT+1 | 81° north | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:59 AM GMT+1 · 81° north · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Karachi, Sindh, PK | Oct 21-22 | 4:50 AM GMT+5 | 81° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:50 AM GMT+5 · 81° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Tokyo, JP | Oct 21-22 | 3:58 AM GMT+9 | 70° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 3:58 AM GMT+9 · 70° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Moscow, RU | Oct 21-22 | 4:45 AM GMT+3 | 50° south | 10 | 2 | Oct 21-22 · 4:45 AM GMT+3 · 50° south · 10 an hour dark, 2 in a city |
| Mumbai, Maharashtra, IN | Oct 21-22 | 4:51 AM GMT+5:30 | 87° south | 15 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:51 AM GMT+5:30 · 87° south · 15 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| São Paulo, BR | Oct 21-22 | 4:04 AM GMT-3 | 50° north | 9 | 2 | Oct 21-22 · 4:04 AM GMT-3 · 50° north · 9 an hour dark, 2 in a city |
| Jakarta, ID | Oct 21-22 | 4:05 AM GMT+7 | 68° north | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:05 AM GMT+7 · 68° north · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Cairo, EG | Oct 21-22 | 5:08 AM GMT+3 | 76° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 5:08 AM GMT+3 · 76° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Seoul, KR | Oct 21-22 | 4:47 AM GMT+9 | 68° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:47 AM GMT+9 · 68° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Lima, PE | Oct 21-22 | 4:15 AM GMT-5 | 62° north | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:15 AM GMT-5 · 62° north · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Mexico City, CDMX, MX | Oct 21-22 | 4:48 AM CST | 87° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:48 AM CST · 87° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh, VN | Oct 21-22 | 4:13 AM GMT+7 | 85° north | 15 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:13 AM GMT+7 · 85° north · 15 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| London, England, GB | Oct 21-22 | 5:14 AM GMT+1 | 55° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 5:14 AM GMT+1 · 55° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Dhaka, BD | Oct 21-22 | 4:17 AM GMT+6 | 82° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:17 AM GMT+6 · 82° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Bengaluru, Karnataka, IN | Oct 21-22 | 4:37 AM GMT+5:30 | 87° north | 15 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:37 AM GMT+5:30 · 87° north · 15 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| New York | Oct 21-22 | 5:06 AM EDT | 65° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 5:06 AM EDT · 65° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Bangkok, TH | Oct 21-22 | 4:35 AM GMT+7 | 88° north | 15 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:35 AM GMT+7 · 88° north · 15 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Riyadh, SA | Oct 21-22 | 4:11 AM GMT+3 | 81° south | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:11 AM GMT+3 · 81° south · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Hong Kong, HK | Oct 21-22 | 4:43 AM GMT+8 | 84° south | 15 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:43 AM GMT+8 · 84° south · 15 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
| Bogotá, CO | Oct 21-22 | 4:10 AM GMT-5 | 79° north | 10 | 3 | Oct 21-22 · 4:10 AM GMT-5 · 79° north · 10 an hour dark, 3 in a city |
Meteors an hour at the best time on the best night, for one person watching the whole sky. Times are local.
Where to look
The Orionids seem to fly out from Orion, the Hunter, in the east after midnight, but they can appear anywhere in the sky, and the ones away from that point have longer trails. Look about halfway up, toward the darkest part of your sky.
Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes to adjust, put your phone away (its screen resets your night vision), and lie back so you can take in as much sky as you can. No telescope or binoculars: they show too little sky.
Open Look up on the Sky Globe While the shower is on, Look up marks where they come from.
What they are
- Comes from
- Halley's Comet
- Speed
- 66 km/s (about 148,000 mph)
- Peak rate, perfect sky
- 20 an hour (IMO)
- Active
- Oct 2 to Nov 7
Each meteor is a grain of dust, most smaller than a grain of sand, left behind by Halley's Comet. Earth runs into that dust on the same days every year, and the grains burn up about 100 km overhead.
Saw a fireball?
A meteor brighter than Venus is a fireball. Every shower makes a few. If you saw one, or something you can't place, tell us when and where and we'll check it against the shower, satellites, rockets and planes.
The next showers
How we work this out: the peak is when the Sun reaches the shower's place along its yearly path (the International Meteor Organization's way of timing it, with their numbers for the peak rate, the radiant and the speed). For each place we follow the night in 10-minute steps and scale the rate for how high the radiant is, twilight, the Moon and city lights. It's an estimate: clouds, haze and your eyes all change it.