{"id":935793,"date":"2026-10-21T05:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T05:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935793\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T05:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T05:34:14","slug":"orionid-meteor-shower-australia-the-best-times-and-places-to-watch-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935793\/","title":{"rendered":"Orionid meteor shower Australia: The best times and places to watch it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stargazers in Australia can look forward to a celestial<\/a> treat this week, with the Orionid meteor<\/a> shower reaching its peak.<\/p>\n

The Orionids, pieces of dust and detritus left behind from Halley\u2019s Comet, appear every October and run for multiple weeks, but will climax early on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Meteors<\/p>\n

Meteors streak across the night sky during the Orionid meteor shower. Photo by Yuri Smityuk\\TASS via Getty Images\u00a0TASS via Getty Images<\/p>\n

When Earth moves through the cloud of debris every year around this time, the cosmic waste strikes our upper atmosphere and burns up in a display seen on the ground as shooting stars and sometimes a fireball.<\/p>\n

The only downside this year is the Orionids peaking at the same time as a nearly full Moon. <\/p>\n

This means during the early stages, the meteor shower will be washed out by the bright Moon.<\/p>\n

Astronomer Sara Webb, from Swinburne University in Melbourne, told nine.com.au the best viewing time for the meteors should be 3am to 5am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Orionid meteor shower is pretty visible across the entirety of the sky of Australia \u2026 up north you will always have a better chance of seeing more meteorites,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The best way to see them is look towards the Orion constellation with your naked eye, or by using a night sky app.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to avoid too much light pollution to your eyes adjust to the darkness of the sky,\u201d said Webb.<\/p>\n

Catching sight of a meteor is a bit hit and miss: you may have to wait for a while, then multiple ones can appear.<\/p>\n

And they enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere at the extremely fast speed of about 66km per second.<\/p>\n

At its peak, up to 20 meteors are visible every hour in the Orionids meteor shower, dropping every night until they end in early November.<\/p>\n

\"Perseid<\/p>\n

Meteors are produced when Earth moves through the cloud of debris, causing cosmic dust to burn up in the upper atmosphere. \u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

Tips for spotting meteors<\/p>\n

For the best place to view the Orionids meteor shower from Australia, pick a secluded area away from bright city lights.<\/p>\n

Make sure you\u2019re somewhere with a clear view of the sky and check the weather forecast to ensure there\u2019s a clear sky to spot meteors.<\/p>\n

A meteor shower sky map can help you find the radiant (area where most of the meteors will appear from) and then it\u2019s just a waiting game.<\/p>\n

More meteor showers ahead<\/p>\n

If you miss the Orionids this month, don\u2019t worry, the Geminid meteor shower will begin over Australia in November and peak in mid-December.<\/p>\n

Astronomers consider it one of the most reliable and spectacular meteor showers, producing up to 150 bright, multicoloured meteors per hour under dark skies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stargazers in Australia can look forward to a celestial treat this week, with the Orionid meteor shower reaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-935793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}