Streaks of light in the night sky from Perseid meteors. — Meteors are bright flashes of light we sometimes see in the night sky. They’re mostly caused by tiny dust particles vaporising as they enter Earth’s atmosphere. © Jasmine_K/ Shutterstock

Orionid meteor shower 2025: When and how to watch

By Kerry Lotzof, Lisa Hendry and Emily Osterloff

The Orionid meteor shower is active throughout October and early November, reaching its peak on 21–22 October. The Draconids will also make a brief appearance earlier in the month.

Read on for tips on how to catch the best view of this stunning shower from planetary scientist and meteorite expert Dr Ashley King.

Meteors are often called shooting stars, though the bright streaks you see in the sky don’t have anything to do with stars.

In fact, what you’re wishing on are tiny particles of dust – leftovers from the birth of our solar system – vaporising in Earth’s atmosphere.

Tips for watching the Orionid meteor shower

Some of the more spectacular of these meteors can sometimes be visible from city centres, including in London, however you’re bound to get the best experience away from the light pollution in urban areas.

Gif of a meteor captured on camera at the Natural History Museum — A bright meteor recorded on a meteor-monitoring CCTV camera at the Natural History Museum.

“The darker the skies, the better your chances of seeing the really faint meteors as well,” says Ashley. “You could go to the coast or stand on a hill in the middle of the countryside somewhere.”

A full Moon can really light up the sky too, so you’ll likely have more success spotting meteors when a shower’s peak coincides with a new Moon. Fortunately, in 2025, several showers are set to occur when the skies are at their darkest.

You also need to be patient.

“You might not be able to see anything for the first 10 minutes while your eyes adjust to the dark,” he adds.

“Once you get used to the low light levels you’ll begin to notice more and more. So don’t give up too quickly.”

What causes a meteor shower?

Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through streams of tiny pieces of debris – meteoroids – left behind by comets and asteroids. The peak of a meteor shower is when we see the highest rate of meteors. This happens as we pass through the densest part of the debris stream.

Most comets are composed of dust and ice, which Ashley likens to “a big, dirty snowball”.

“As comets orbit the Sun, the ice sublimes [changes from a solid to a gas] and the trapped dust is swept out into a tail behind them.”

Nearly all meteors are tiny dust particles, about the size of a grain of sand travelling at tens of kilometres per second through space.

“As they come out of the vacuum of space and into Earth’s atmosphere, that little dust grain interacts with all the particles and ions in the atmosphere. It gets heated up by the friction and forms the impressive flash that we see,” he says.

“The Earth isn’t close to the comet – it’s just passing through some of the dust it left behind.”

At other times of year, you may still see meteors in the sky, but only about one every 10 minutes. These sporadic meteors, as they are known, will come from random directions.

Quick quiz

What’s the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?

A Perseid meteor streaking through the night sky — A lone meteor. © Jacek Halick (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia commons

Orionid meteor shower

The Orionid meteor shower takes place from 2 October to 7 November as Earth passes through the trail of Halley’s Comet, one of the most famous comets of all time. In 2025, the shower is due to peak on the night of 21–22 October.

This year the peak falls on a moonless night, giving you ideal dark sky conditions for spotting meteors.

Orionids are some of the fastest and brightest meteors, entering the atmosphere at just under 70 kilometres per second.

Orionids get their name because they seem to radiate from the constellation Orion, but they can appear anywhere in the sky.

Stargazers can usually expect to see up to 20 meteors per hour.

Halley’s Comet

Halley’s Comet is a short-period comet, meaning it takes less than 200 years to go around the Sun. Its orbital period is 75–76 years and it last passed close to Earth in 1986. It will be back again in 2061.

In 1986, space agencies sent the missions Vega, Giotto, Sakigake and Suisei to Halley – known as the ‘Halley Armada’ – so it’s one of the best-studied comets.

Halley’s Comet has been observed for centuries – in 1066 it was considered an omen of doom. It even appears on the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in the eleventh century.

Top meteor showers to look out for in 2025

The Quadrantids, due to peak on 3–4 January with up to 120 meteors per hour, possibly from the trail of the asteroid 2003 EH1 or perhaps from a comet.
The Lyrids, due to peak on 22 April with around 18 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet Thatcher.
The Eta Aquariids, due to peak on the morning of 6 May with up to 50 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 1P/Halley.
The Delta Aquariids, due to peak on 30–31 July with around 25 meteors per hour, possibly from the trail of comet 96P/Machholz.
The Perseids, due to peak on 12 August with more than 100 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
The Draconids, due to peak on the evening of 8 October with usually less than 10 meteors per hour from the trail of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner.
The Orionids, due to peak on 21–22 October with up to 20 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 1P/Halley.
The Northern Taurids, due to peak on 12 November with around five meteors per hour from the trails of comet 2P/Encke or associated objects.
The Leonids, due to peak on the evening of 17 November with up to 15 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
The Geminids, due to peak on the morning of 14 December with up to 150 meteors per hour from the trail of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
The Ursids, due to peak on the morning of 22 December and usually produces fewer than 10 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 8P/Tuttle.

A composite image of a meteor shower. — A meteor shower and the Milky Way in a composite image taken over several hours. © Genevieve de Messieres/ Shutterstock

Leonid meteor shower

The Leonid meteor shower takes place annually between 6–30 November as Earth crosses the trail of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.

Entering the atmosphere at 70 kilometres per second, the Leonids are some of the fastest-moving and brightest meteors. The shower promises up to 15 meteors per hour at its peak on the evening of 17 November, which is just a few days before a new Moon.

Leonids get their name because they seem to radiate from the constellation Leo.

Comet Tempel-Tuttle

Comet Tempel-Tuttle is a short-period comet, taking 33 years to go around the Sun. Its last visit was in 1998 with a return expected in 2031. The comet is quite small, only about three kilometres across.

The comet is named for the two astronomers, Ernst Tempel and Horace Tuttle, who each independently discovered it in 1865 and 1866, respectively. Horace Tuttle also co-discovered Comet Swift-Tuttle, which causes the Perseid meteor shower.

Meteor shower in front of the Milky Way — Lyrid meteor shower. © lovemushroom/ Shutterstock

Geminid meteor shower

One of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, the Geminids take place from 4–20 December as Earth passes through the trail of dust left by the ‘rock comet’ 3200 Phaethon.

At the shower’s peak on the morning of 14 December, stargazers willing to brave the cold could be rewarded with a display of up to 150 multicoloured meteors per hour.

It’s often one of the best showers of the year for viewers in the northern hemisphere, as it’s one of the most active. This year it falls just a few days before a new Moon.

Geminids get their name because meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Gemini.

3200 Phaethon

Discovered by satellite in 1983, Phaethon has an orbital period of 524 days and is one of only a few asteroids associated with a meteor shower.

According to Ashley, there’s been quite a lot of debate about what Phaethon really is.

“Like other comets, Phaethon has an elliptical orbit but is unusual as it doesn’t go to the outer solar system. It has been officially classified as a B-type asteroid, but it has also been suggested that it could be a ‘rock comet’ or a ‘dead comet’.”

Scientists have been studying Phaethon’s infrared emissions to learn more about this mysterious space rock. In 2023, this research revealed that Phaethon is likely linked to the CY group of carbonaceous chondrites.

Carbonaceous chondrites are some of the oldest rocks in the solar system. They are often rich in water, sulphur and organic material, but those in the CY group show signs of drying and decomposition caused by heating. Phaethon travels even closer to the Sun than Mercury does. Scientists at the Natural History Museum have helped estimate that, at perihelion – the asteroid’s closest point to the Sun – its surface reaches 730 °C and some of its components turn to gas. The pressure this gas creates causes the rock to break down, leaving a comet-like trail of dust behind the asteroid as it travels through space.

Phaethon may once have been similar to the asteroid Ryugu, from which the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa2 mission returned samples in December 2020, and Bennu, an asteroid visited by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned to Earth with samples in September 2023. Our scientists have been leading some of the first analyses of the Bennu samples.

Phaethon is considered a potentially hazardous asteroid, meaning it could impact the Earth at some point hundreds of years in the future. For this reason, it’s very well studied and there are plans to send space missions there in the future, such as DESTINY+, which aims to launch in 2028.