Orionids meteor shower peaks this week. Here's how to see it on Long Island.
This image shows an Orionid meteor streaking across the sky. Credit: NASA/JPL
The Orionids meteor shower reaches its peak this week, with prime viewing time from Wednesday night into the pre-dawn hours of Thursday.
The meteors, numbering as many as 20 per hour and visible to the naked eye, are caused by particles left in orbit over the millennia from the trail of Halley's comet colliding with the Earth's atmosphere.
All you need to see them, experts told Newsday, are some mostly clear skies, a really dark location away from light pollution, a little bit of luck — and a whole lot of patience.
"Any time you go out and see a really great shooting star it's pretty cool," said Bart Fried, president and founder of the Antique Telescope Society and member of the Amateur Astronomers Association. "But, to see it well? You'll need to drive outside of the city, maybe go out to Montauk or sit on a beach where it's dark."
Complicating the viewing of the Orionids, which began being visible in the night skies on Oct. 2 and will remain visible through Nov. 7, is the peak viewing times this week — when the most meteors will be visible — come at the same time as a waxing gibbous moon. That is, the moon will be 81% full and its brightness will preclude viewing for most of the night.
Light pollution also complicates the ability to see meteors.
"Because the light pollution has become so bad," Astronomical Society of Long Island president Ken Spencer said, "all of the recommendations are to start looking for the Orionids after midnight — with the best viewing times being between midnight until dawn."
The showers, said experts including astronomer Joe Rao, of the American Museum of Natural History, and Stony Brook University Associate Professor Simon Birrer, are the result of trailing dust and rock particles left in the wake of Halley's comet colliding with the atmosphere. These collisions occur at more than 140,000 mph, causing bright, fiery streaks across the darkened sky. Halley last passed closest to the Earth in February 1986 and won't be visible again as close until August 2061.
But its remnants? Twice a year — once in the Southern Hemisphere, once in the Northern Hemisphere — those particles become meteor shows for us to see.
The National Weather Service is calling for partly cloudy skies overnight Wednesday into Thursday.
If there's heavier cloud cover? Then, Fried said, "I'd probably just pass and wouldn't even bother."
But the experts agreed that if you can find a dark enough place with clear enough skies, it's worth a try.
"If you can get a great night," Spencer said. "It's worth going out and taking a look. Because if you get a great night, it'll knock your socks off."
John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.
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