{"id":66787,"date":"2026-10-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=4ecb5f03c4240626b233b852c3b7c194"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:51:20","slug":"the-orionid-meteor-shower-peaks-next-week-heres-what-to-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/10\/17\/the-orionid-meteor-shower-peaks-next-week-heres-what-to-expect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Orionid meteor shower peaks next week! Here&#8217;s what to expect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <p>The Orionid meteor shower peaks overnight on Oct. 21-22, triggering a spectacular display of shooting stars as Earth plunges through the densest part of the debris trail shed by Halley's Comet. Here's what you need to know.<\/p><h2 id=\"when-is-the-best-time-to-see-orionid-shooting-stars\">When is the best time to see Orionid shooting stars?<\/h2><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/orionid-meteor-shower-2026-guide-when-to-see-it\"><u>Orionid meteors<\/u><\/a> are best spotted between the hours of midnight and dawn on Oct. 22, when 10-20 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/meteor-showers-shooting-stars.html\"><u>shooting stars<\/u><\/a> may be seen brightening the night sky each hour under ideal dark-sky.<\/p><p>The glare cast by the 74%-lit waxing gibbous moon will hide fainter shooting stars for much of the night. Thankfully, the lunar disk will set a few hours after midnight, leaving a window of beautifully dark sky before dawn in which to enjoy the full majesty of the annual meteor shower. Remember to use a trusted website like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeanddate.com\/moon\/usa\/new-york\" ><u>Time and Date<\/u><\/a> to discover the exact moment of moonset for your location.<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/PdoL9zXm.html\" id=\"PdoL9zXm\" title=\"Oct. 2026 Skywatching: Saturn at opposition, Orionid metor shower and more\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2 id=\"where-should-i-look-to-see-orionid-meteors\">Where should I look to see Orionid meteors?<\/h2><p>Orionid shooting stars will appear to originate from a patch of sky, or radiant, located close to the red giant star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22009-betelgeuse.html\"><u>Betelgeuse<\/u><\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/16659-constellation-orion.html\"><u>constellation Orion<\/u><\/a>, which glistens above the southeastern horizon for stargazers in the U.S. during the early hours of Oct. 22. <\/p><p>For the best views look 40-90 degrees away from the radiant, where the glowing trains left in the wake of the fast-moving meteors will be at their longest. Be sure to head away from artificial lights and allow 20-30 minutes for your eyes to fully adapt to the dark for the best <\/p><h2 id=\"what-causes-the-orionid-meteor-shower\">What causes the Orionid meteor shower?<\/h2><p>The Orionid meteor shower is active each year as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/54-earth-history-composition-and-atmosphere.html\"><u>Earth<\/u><\/a> passes through the stream of debris left behind by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/19878-halleys-comet.html\"><u>Comet 1P\/Halley<\/u><\/a>, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/stargazing\/the-great-halleys-comet-disappointment-of-1986-and-the-discoveries-that-changed-astronomy-forever#section-a-scientific-gold-mine\"><u>observed by a fleet of spacecraft<\/u><\/a> when it last visited the inner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/16080-solar-system-planets.html\"><u>solar system<\/u><\/a> in 1986.<\/p><p>Shooting stars become visible when particles of the ancient comet collide with our planet's atmosphere at <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/meteors-meteorites\/orionids\/\"><u>147,600 miles per hour<\/u><\/a> (237,539 kilometers per hour), vaporizing in a spectacular display of natural fireworks. <\/p><p>Hoping to catch a shooting star for yourself? Then be sure to read our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/how-to-photograph-meteor-showers\"><u>guide to photographing meteor showers<\/u><\/a>, along with our picks of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/best-cameras-for-astrophotography\"><u>best cameras<\/u><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/best-lenses-for-astrophotography\"><u>lenses for astrophotography<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><p><em><strong>Editor's Note: <\/strong><\/em><em>If you would like to share your Orionid photos with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. <\/em><\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Orionid meteor shower peaks overnight on Oct. 21-22, bringing a spectacular display of shooting stars to the autumn sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3604,2794],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meteors-meteor-showers","category-stargazing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66799,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66787\/revisions\/66799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}