Orionid Meteor Shower 2017: What it is, when it's happening and where to watch it

Aris Folley
Updated ·1 min read

In several days, stargazers will witness the peak of one of the year's best shooting star displays in the United States.

Known as the Orionid meteor shower, the celestial event occurs only once a year, and its peak easily makes it one of the most impressive showers on the calendar.

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The shower is expected to see 10-20 meteors fall every hour -- which can be visible to the naked eye if weather conditions permit. These "shooting stars" originate from the constellation Orion (The Hunter), which is where the shower gets its name.

This year, the shower lasts from Oct. 2 to Nov. 26. The Orionids will peak from Oct. 20-23 during the late evening and early morning hours.

“Keep in mind that if the weather does not cooperate on Saturday morning, the Orionids have a broad maximum, so Sunday morning (Oct. 22) will be pretty good too,” Kevin D. Conod, an astronomer with the Newark Museum's Dreyfuss Planetarium, wrote in his astronomy column for The Star-Ledger.

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The best way to see this year's shower is to step outside sometime between midnight and sunrise. If you're worried about where to stand and what time to catch all the action, check out this moonrise and moonset calculator.