Orionid Meteor Shower 2027 UK
Peak night 21–22 October. Fast, bright meteors from Halley's Comet, best in the hours before dawn, keeping the Moon behind you.
Orionids 2027 at a glance
| Peak night | Thursday 21 – Friday 22 October 2027 |
| Best time (UK) | 1am to 5.30am BST on the 22nd, Moon behind you |
| Active | 2 October to 7 November |
| Max rate (ZHR) | About 20 per hour (expect 10–15 from a dark UK site) |
| Moon | Waning gibbous, about 57% lit, rises 9.59pm BST (London) and stays up. Poor: keep it out of your view |
| Radiant | Above Betelgeuse in Orion, rising in the east around 10pm |
| Parent body | Halley's Comet (1P/Halley) |
| Speed | 66 km/s (very fast, often with glowing trains) |
When is the Orionid meteor shower in 2027?
The Orionid meteor shower peaks on the night of Thursday 21 to Friday 22 October 2027. Unlike the sharp peaks of the Quadrantids or Geminids, the Orionids have a broad, flat maximum: rates stay close to their best for two or three nights either side of the 21st, so a cloudy peak night isn't the end of it. The shower runs from about 2 October to 7 November, and in some years secondary peaks arrive a few days after the main one.
The catch in 2027 is the Moon. Full Moon is on 15 October and Last Quarter on the evening of the 22nd, so on peak night a waning gibbous Moon, a little over half lit, rises around 10pm and stays up until well after sunrise. Worse, it sits in Gemini, less than 20 degrees from the radiant, so it is in the same part of the sky you would naturally face. It is a poorer year than 2026, when the Moon set at 2.47am on peak night and left three dark hours before dawn. The fix is to keep the Moon out of your eyeline rather than wait for it to go.
What time is best to watch the Orionids in the UK?
From the UK the best time to watch the Orionids in 2027 is between about 1am and 5.30am BST on Friday 22 October. The radiant clears the eastern horizon at about the same time as the Moon, around 10pm, but it is too low to give many meteors until after midnight: it is near 30 degrees up by 1am, 45 degrees by 3am and about 50 degrees in the south-south-east by 4am, and the first light of dawn arrives around 5.45am. The Moon rises at 9.59pm in London, 9.42pm in Edinburgh and 10.23pm in Plymouth and climbs alongside Orion all night, so stand or lie with it behind you, or hidden by a house or a hedge, and watch the darker sky to the north-east or overhead. Orion itself, with Sirius below it and to the left, is easy to find, and Jupiter rises in the east shortly before 5am.
Because the peak is broad, the weekend after is worth a try too. On the night of Sunday 24 to Monday 25 October the Moon, now a quarter lit, doesn't rise in London until 2.16am, so from about 12.30am to 2am you get a dark sky with the radiant 25 to 40 degrees up. Rates will be a little down on the peak, but a dark sky makes up much of the difference.
If a 4am start is a step too far, set an alarm for around 2am, watch for 90 minutes and go back to bed. Peak night is a Thursday into a school-day Friday, so for families the Geminids in December are the better bet: they give good rates from 9pm and have a much better Moon.
Where to look for Orionid meteors
Orionid meteors trace back to a point just above Betelgeuse, the orange star at Orion's shoulder, near the border with Gemini. You don't need to stare at it. Face south or south-east, lie back so you can see as much sky as possible, and watch a dark area 30 to 60 degrees away from Orion. Meteors near the radiant look short; the long, dramatic streaks appear further out.
Because the radiant sits close to the celestial equator, Orionid meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, and the shower is one of the few visible equally well from both hemispheres. From the UK the highest rates come when the radiant is highest, which is in the hour before dawn twilight.
How many meteors will I actually see?
The Orionids' ZHR is about 20, which puts them in the second tier behind the Perseids and Geminids. In a dark, Moon-free year a dark UK site gives 10 to 15 an hour before dawn. With the gibbous Moon up on 22 October 2027 expect more like 5 to 10 from a dark site, and only the brighter ones from a suburban garden. What the Orionids lack in numbers they make up for in quality. At 66 km/s they are the second-fastest meteors of the year, and around a fifth of them leave glowing trains that hang in the sky for a second or two after the meteor has gone. Occasional fireballs are part of the deal, too.
The Orionids also have form for surprises. Between 2006 and 2009 they produced rates of 50 to 70 an hour for several years running, thanks to old dust trails from Halley's Comet drifting into Earth's path. Nothing like that is predicted for 2027, but it's one reason experienced observers never skip them.
What causes the Orionid meteor shower?
The Orionid meteor shower is caused by Earth passing through the trail of dust left by Halley's Comet. Every 75 to 79 years the comet swings through the inner solar system and sheds grit along its orbit, and Earth crosses that trail twice a year: in October for the Orionids and in May for the Eta Aquariids. Because the comet orbits backwards relative to Earth, its dust hits us almost head-on, which is why Orionid meteors are so fast.
Halley itself won't be back until 2061, but you can watch pieces of it burn up every autumn. The grains you see are typically the size of a grain of sand and were shed centuries ago; the comet's most recent visit in 1986 laid down dust that won't reach Earth's orbit for hundreds of years yet.
How to watch the Orionids: the honest version
Leave the telescope indoors. Meteors cross tens of degrees of sky in under a second, and any optical aid narrows your view and guarantees you miss them. Your eyes are the right instrument. What actually matters:
- Put the Moon behind you. In 2027 it is up all night from about 10pm, so pick a spot where a building or trees hide it, and look away from Orion towards the darker sky.
- Check the forecast first. Our stargazing tonight tool scores your local sky out of 10 for cloud, Moon and light pollution. With a broad peak, the 20th or 23rd can be just as good if the 21st is cloudy.
- Give your eyes 20 minutes. No phone screens. Dark adaptation is the difference between seeing three meteors and fifteen.
- Lie back and dress warm. A camping mat or deckchair, a blanket, a flask. Late October pre-dawn is colder than it looks, and cold ends more meteor watches than cloud does.
- Stay out for an hour. Meteors come in bursts and lulls. Ten minutes tells you nothing.
While you wait, the pre-dawn October sky is one of the best of the year: Orion, Sirius, the Pleiades and Jupiter are all up, and the Orion Nebula is an easy binocular target. Our guide to binocular astronomy shows you where to find them, and if the sky is really dark you may catch the winter Milky Way arching overhead.
What to take out on Orionid night
Kit we've reviewed in full
You don't need optics to see meteors. But an Orionid watch means two or three pre-dawn hours in late October with quiet spells between meteors, and the sky around Orion is full of things worth a look. See our binocular reviews for more.
The Orion Nebula, the Pleiades and the Hyades are all easy in a 10×50 from a dark site, and Jupiter's four big moons show as a neat line of dots. The pair we point most UK beginners to first.
Astro Essentials Red Light Torch
A red torch lets you check the time and find the flask without resetting the 20 minutes of dark adaptation you've just spent. Cheap and worth it.
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