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Orionid meteor shower 2026: peak night of October 21 and the moon

October

The Orionids are grit shed by Halley's Comet, burning up about sixty miles overhead, and they peak on the night of October 21 into the morning of the 22nd. A bright waxing gibbous moon is up for most of that night in 2026, so the usable window is the stretch between moonset and first light.

Why this time of year

The moon sets at 2:59am on the morning of the 22nd and morning twilight starts about 6:37am, which leaves a dark stretch of about three and a half hours over the best radiant hours. The night before and after are workable too, with less dark time on the 23rd because the moon sets later each night.

How to notice it

  1. Set an alarm for just after moonset, about 3am on the morning of October 22. The Orionids run a broad plateau rather than one sharp spike, so the mornings either side work too.
  2. Get whatever distance you can from direct light and let your eyes adapt for a full thirty minutes without checking a phone. Use a red light to walk out.
  3. Lie flat with your feet pointed southeast and look forty five to ninety degrees away from Orion rather than straight at it, which is where the trails look longest. No binoculars: wide open eyes are the right instrument.
  4. Watch for a full hour and keep a tally. A five minute look almost always reads as a failure even on a good morning.

Try this with kids: Every streak is a speck of comet dust, most no bigger than a grain of sand. Count out loud each time one goes.

the Orionids are dust shed by Halley's Comet, hitting our air at about forty one miles a second

Safety

  • Late October before dawn can sit near freezing. Dress for standing still, not for walking, and bring something to lie on.
  • Walk the route in daylight first and use a red light, so you keep your night vision and can still see roots and holes.
  • Massachusetts archery deer season is open in late October. Stick to your own yard, a town field, or conservation land where it is allowed.

Sources

  • science.nasa.govNASA: peak night October 21-22; activity October 2 through November 7; about 10 to 20 meteors an hour under dark skies; radiant just north of Betelgeuse; parent comet 1P/Halley; 41 miles per second; and the viewing method of lying flat with feet southeast and looking 45 to 90 degrees off the radiant.
  • amsmeteors.orgAmerican Meteor Society, the authority this repo requires for meteor claims. READ VIA A WAYBACK SNAPSHOT DATED 2026-08-02 because amsmeteors.org was serving a site-wide maintenance page on 2026-09-06. AMS states the Orionids next peak on the Oct 21-22 2026 night with the moon 80 percent full, and that in a normal year the Orionids produce 10-20 shower members at maximum. RE-CHECK LIVE once the site is back up.
  • aa.usno.navy.milUS Naval Observatory for the Boston area, the peak morning: moonset 2:59am, moon 86 percent illuminated waxing gibbous, sunrise 7:05am. This is the moonset the dark window is measured from.
  • aa.usno.navy.milUS Naval Observatory, October 21: moonset 1:52am, moon 78 percent lit, civil twilight begins 6:36am. NOTE this 1:52am moonset belongs to the night of October 20-21, the night BEFORE the peak.
  • aa.usno.navy.milUS Naval Observatory, October 23: moonset 4:07am, moon 92 percent lit, civil twilight begins 6:38am. The night after the peak, with under two and a half hours of dark.
  • aa.usno.navy.milUS Naval Observatory 2026 lunar phases: new moon October 10, first quarter October 18, full moon October 26. This is what puts a waxing gibbous moon over the whole peak.

Checked against these sources on September 6, 2026.

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