12.2 days old moon
92.5 percent lit
October 21, 2018
By Dustin Nelson
There are just a few (click here) significant meteor showers remaining in 2018. The two most active displays won't arrive until December, so the peak of the Orionid meteor shower this Sunday may be one of your best chances to experience a spectacular night of stargazing before the year is out, even if it's not the most active shower left this year.
The Orionid meteor shower runs from October 2 through November 7 and will peak the night of Sunday, October 21 into the morning of Monday, October 22. Earlier this year, Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office told Thrillist to expect somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 meteors per hour when the Orionids peak. Unfortunately, it looks like some of these meteors will be obscured by the bright light of a nearly full moon on the night of October 21.
The shower, which stems from Halley's Comet, has the ability to produce up to 90 meteors per hour in a year when it's at its most active. We won't see that this year, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to see some bright shooting stars when you look up tonight....
