{"id":118134,"date":"2026-10-06T08:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=118134"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:04:39","slug":"orionid-meteor-shower-halleys-comet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/orionid-meteor-shower-halleys-comet\/","title":{"rendered":"Orionid Meteor Shower 2026: Every Streak Is a Piece of Halley&#8217;s Comet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>10 Minute, 29 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p>Sometime before dawn on 22 October, a speck of dust smaller than a grain of sand will hit the top of Earth&#8217;s air at about 66 kilometres a second. It will burn up in a fraction of a second. You will see a thin white line drawn across the sky, and then nothing.<\/p>\n\n<p>That speck left Halley&#8217;s Comet a very long time ago. It has been waiting in space for Earth to come by.<\/p>\n\n<p>That is the Orionid meteor shower. It peaks every October, and this year the best mornings are around 21 to 22 October. Here is when and how to watch it from wherever you live, why every streak is a small piece of the most famous comet in history, and the strange thing that comet has already started doing.<\/p>\n\n<h2>When is the Orionid meteor shower in 2026?<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Orionids are active from early October into November. The peak in 2026 falls around the night of 21 October into the morning of 22 October. EarthSky calls it a broad, plateau-like peak, which means a few nights either side are almost as good. If the 21st is cloudy where you are, try the 20th or the 23rd.<\/p>\n\n<p>The moon is the catch this year. It is a bright, nearly full moon, and the full moon lands on 26 October. The good news: on the peak mornings the moon sets several hours before dawn. So the darkest, best window is the last few hours before the sky starts to brighten.<\/p>\n\n<p>Under a truly dark sky, expect about 10 to 20 meteors an hour. In town, fewer. That does not sound like much, but these are some of the fastest meteors of the year, and they often leave a glowing trail that hangs for a second or two after the streak is gone.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>How to watch the Orionids (it costs nothing)<\/h2>\n\n<p>You do not need a telescope. A telescope would actually make it worse, because meteors flash across the whole sky and a telescope sees a tiny patch of it.<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Set an alarm for the early hours.<\/strong> Somewhere between about 2 a.m. and the first light of dawn is best on 21, 22 and 23 October.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get away from lights if you can.<\/strong> A field, a rooftop, a dark corner of a yard, even the side of a building that blocks a streetlight helps.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find Orion, then look away from it.<\/strong> The meteors seem to come from near Orion&#8217;s raised arm, just above the bright reddish star Betelgeuse. But they streak across the whole sky. Looking a little to the side of Orion often shows longer trails.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Give your eyes 20 minutes.<\/strong> Put your phone away. Every glance at a bright screen resets your night vision.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lie down.<\/strong> A blanket on the ground beats craning your neck.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>One more thing makes this shower friendly to almost everyone on Earth. Orion sits near the sky&#8217;s equator, so the Orionids can be seen from both the northern and southern halves of the planet. Manila, Nairobi, Lagos, London and Lima all get a view.<\/p>\n\n<p>It is also a good thing to do with someone. Researchers have found that couples who feel wonder together tend to feel closer, which we wrote about in <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/relationships-and-family\/shared-awe-couples\/\">shared awe<\/a>. A cold pre-dawn hour with a blanket and someone you love is about as cheap as that gets.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Why every Orionid is a piece of Halley&#8217;s Comet<\/h2>\n\n<p>A comet is a big lump of ice, rock and dust. Halley&#8217;s Comet is about 15 kilometres long, roughly the size of a small city. Each time it swings close to the sun, the heat makes it shed. It leaves a trail of dust behind it along its path, like crumbs from a pocket.<\/p>\n\n<p>Earth&#8217;s orbit crosses that trail twice a year. In May we pass through it and get a shower called the Eta Aquariids. In October we pass through it again and get the Orionids.<\/p>\n\n<p>So when you see an Orionid, you are not seeing a star fall. You are seeing a crumb of Halley&#8217;s Comet that was shed on some pass long ago, finally meeting our air and turning into light.<\/p>\n\n<p>The comet itself is nowhere near us. That is part of what makes the shower special. For most people alive today, these streaks are the only piece of Halley&#8217;s Comet they will ever see.<\/p>\n\n<h2>A comet that keeps its appointment<\/h2>\n\n<p>Halley&#8217;s Comet comes back roughly every 76 years. The exact gap wobbles between about 74 and 80 years, because the big planets tug on it as it passes. It was last near the sun in early 1986. It is due back on 28 July 2061.<\/p>\n\n<p>Seventy-six years is about one human life. That is the whole strangeness of this comet. Most people get one chance at it. Some get none. A lucky few get two.<\/p>\n\n<p>And the 1986 chance was not a good one. That pass was the least favourable on record, with Earth and the comet on opposite sides of the sun for the best part of it. Many people who went out to see it in 1986 saw a faint smudge, or nothing at all. If you are old enough to remember being disappointed, you were not imagining it.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The man who named it never saw it come back<\/h2>\n\n<p>This is the part most people do not know.<\/p>\n\n<p>The English astronomer Edmond Halley watched the comet in 1682. He studied old records of bright comets and noticed that three of them, decades apart, followed almost the same path. He worked out that they were one comet, coming back again and again, and predicted it would return around the end of 1758.<\/p>\n\n<p>Halley died in 1742. He was 85. His comet was still sixteen years away.<\/p>\n\n<p>On Christmas Day 1758, a German farmer and amateur astronomer named Johann Georg Palitzsch spotted it in the sky. It had come back, right on time, to a man who was no longer there to see it. That is why it carries Halley&#8217;s name. Not because he found it, but because he trusted it would return, and it did.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Mark Twain came in with it, and went out with it<\/h2>\n\n<p>Mark Twain was born on 30 November 1835, about two weeks after Halley&#8217;s Comet swung closest to the sun. In 1909, with his heart failing, he told his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine: &#8220;I came in with Halley&#8217;s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>He even made a joke of it, imagining God looking at him and the comet and deciding the two &#8220;unaccountable freaks&#8221; came in together, so they must go out together.<\/p>\n\n<p>The comet reached its closest point to the sun on 20 April 1910. Mark Twain died the next day, 21 April 1910. He was 74.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The comet has already turned around<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here is the detail that surprised me most.<\/p>\n\n<p>Halley&#8217;s Comet does not just drift off and come back. It travels out past Neptune, slows down, stops getting further away, and falls back toward the sun. That farthest point is called aphelion. Halley&#8217;s Comet reached it in December 2023, about 35 times further from the sun than Earth is.<\/p>\n\n<p>Which means right now, tonight, it is already on its way home. Every day it gets a little closer. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, until July 2061.<\/p>\n\n<p>The children who will see it best are being born about now.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Counting days<\/h2>\n\n<p>There is a quiet question hiding in all of this. If something in the sky shows up once in a lifetime, how many lifetimes have you got? You can do the maths on your own life with our free <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/how-many-days-have-i-been-alive\/\">How Many Days Have I Been Alive? calculator<\/a>. The number is usually bigger than people expect, and smaller than they hope.<\/p>\n\n<p>There is a prayer so old that no one knows exactly when it was first spoken. It does not ask to live longer. It asks to be taught to count our days, so that we can grow a wise heart. Not to fear them. To count them. The same old writings talk about a God who counts the stars and calls every one of them by name. Something that can keep track of a comet across 76 years, and a farmer&#8217;s eyes on Christmas Day, is probably not losing track of you.<\/p>\n\n<p>Halley could not see his comet come back. He trusted it would. That might be what wisdom looks like: doing your part well, then letting the return happen on a schedule you do not hold.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>A good place to start:<\/em><br>\n<strong>The Beginner&#8217;s Guide to Feeling God&#8217;s Presence Every Day (Free)<\/strong><br>\nA short video guide and companion PDF for noticing God in the ordinary moments of real life, like a cold early morning under the stars. <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/free-video-course-feeling-gods-presence\/?utm_source=wordpress&amp;utm_medium=article-inline&amp;utm_content=hero\">Get the free guide<\/a>. Free.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Go outside on the 22nd<\/h2>\n\n<p>You do not have to wait until 2061 to touch Halley&#8217;s Comet. It is sending pieces of itself to you this month, a handful every hour, each one burning bright for less than a second.<\/p>\n\n<p>Set the alarm. Take a blanket. Take someone with you if you can. Find Orion, let your eyes adjust, and wait. If the sky over you is still dark, as we wrote about in <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/space-mirrors-sell-sunlight-at-night\/\">the fight over space mirrors<\/a>, that view is still free.<\/p>\n\n<p>When the first one streaks past, you will be looking at something older than any country on Earth, finally arriving. And the comet it came from is already heading back.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Discussion question<\/h2>\n\n<p>If you could be sure of seeing Halley&#8217;s Comet in 2061, where would you want to be standing, and who would you want next to you? Tell us in the comments.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share this<\/h2>\n\n<p>Every Orionid meteor this month is a crumb of Halley&#8217;s Comet. The comet itself turned around in 2023 and is already heading back for 2061. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/orionid-meteor-shower-halleys-comet\/<\/p>\n\n<p>Edmond Halley predicted his comet would return in 1758. He died in 1742. A farmer spotted it on Christmas Day. I did not know that. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/orionid-meteor-shower-halleys-comet\/<\/p>\n\n<p>Setting an alarm for the Orionid meteor shower, 21-22 October. Best before dawn after the moon sets. Who is in? https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/orionid-meteor-shower-halleys-comet\/<\/p>\n\n<h2>Questions and answers<\/h2>\n\n<h3>When does the Orionid meteor shower peak in 2026?<\/h3>\n<p>The Orionid meteor shower peaks around the night of 21 October into the morning of 22 October 2026, with a broad maximum that keeps rates good for several nights either side. A bright waxing moon sets several hours before dawn on the peak mornings, so the best viewing is in the last few dark hours before sunrise. Under dark skies, observers can expect about 10 to 20 meteors per hour.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Are the Orionid meteors really from Halley&#8217;s Comet?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. The Orionid meteors are tiny particles of dust shed by Halley&#8217;s Comet on its earlier trips around the sun. Earth passes through that dust trail every October, and the particles burn up in the upper atmosphere at about 66 kilometres per second. Earth also crosses the same comet&#8217;s debris in May, producing the Eta Aquariid meteor shower.<\/p>\n\n<h3>When will Halley&#8217;s Comet return?<\/h3>\n<p>Halley&#8217;s Comet is next due to reach its closest point to the sun on 28 July 2061. Its orbit takes roughly 76 years, varying between about 74 and 80 years because of the pull of the large planets. The comet reached its farthest point from the sun in December 2023 and is now travelling back toward the inner solar system.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Did Mark Twain really die when Halley&#8217;s Comet came back?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. Mark Twain was born on 30 November 1835, about two weeks after Halley&#8217;s Comet passed closest to the sun. In 1909 he told his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine that he expected to &#8220;go out with it.&#8221; The comet reached its closest point to the sun on 20 April 1910, and Twain died the following day, 21 April 1910, at the age of 74.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Can you see the Orionid meteor shower from the Southern Hemisphere?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. The Orionid meteor shower can be seen from both hemispheres because its radiant, near the constellation Orion, sits close to the celestial equator. Viewers in Africa, South America, Australia and southern Asia can watch it in the hours before dawn, looking toward Orion and the wider sky around it, away from city lights.<\/p>        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"118134\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\" title=\"\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"twp-count-percent\">\n                                                    <span style=\"display: none;\" class=\"twp-react-count\">0<\/span>\n                  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Every streak is dust from Halley&#8217;s Comet, which most of us will see once in our lives, if ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3708,5226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-and-creation","category-bgodinspired-science-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118135,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118134\/revisions\/118135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}