Will I see any?
Headlines promise "up to 20 an hour", but that rate assumes a perfectly dark sky with Orion overhead. Here is what you are likely to see, using the same formula meteor observers use: rate = ZHR × sin(radiant altitude) ÷ 2.5(6.5 − faintest star), minus clouds.
Times are local solar time. Where clocks are on summer time (still the case in Europe until 25 October and North America until 1 November), your clock reads roughly an hour later.
Show as a table
Seven tips for tonight
- Go late. The waxing gibbous Moon (about 80% lit) sets around 2–3 a.m. That leaves a few hours of dark sky before dawn, right when the radiant is highest.
- Get away from lights. Moving from a city centre to the countryside can multiply what you see several times over. Try the calculator above.
- Don't stare at Orion. Meteors appear all over the sky. Look about halfway up, 30–45° away from the radiant, where trails are longest.
- Wait 20 minutes. Your eyes need time to adapt to the dark. One glance at a white phone screen resets the clock, so use red mode.
- Lie back. A reclining chair or a blanket on the ground saves your neck and lets you take in more sky.
- Be patient. Meteors come in clumps and lulls. Give it at least an hour.
- Go with friends. Face different directions and call out "meteor!" so everyone gets a look.
Packing list
Finding the radiant
Orion rises in the east in the late evening. Find the three stars of his belt in a short, straight row. Above them, the orange star Betelgeuse marks his shoulder. The radiant sits a little higher still, by the faint stars of his raised club, close to the border with Gemini.
You don't need to see the radiant to see Orionids — but if you trace a streak backwards and it lands there, you've caught a piece of Halley's Comet.
Southern hemisphere? Orion appears "upside down", and the radiant is lower in the north-east, but Orionids are still visible.