NASA puts the October 21 Orionid peak at 3 to 6 meteors an hour from suburban skies

Both Orionid rates trace back to NASA, and they probably describe different skies. NASA's guide estimates about 3 to 6 meteors an hour for observers in suburban areas with some artificial lighting, and says people at darker locations could see somewhat more ^[16]. Discover Magazine, citing NASA, gives 10 to 20 an hour ^[6]. At the midpoints, the second figure is about 3.3 times the first ^[22].

Discover does not state the viewing conditions behind its number. NASA's lower figure comes with its conditions attached, and its phrase for dark sites, "somewhat more", sounds smaller than the gap between the two published figures ^[16][22]. For anyone watching from a town, I'd plan on 3 to 6 an hour ^[16].

Moonlight is the other variable. NASA's guide says this year's Draconids benefit from a Moon approaching its new phase, which leaves little light to brighten the sky and hide faint meteors ^[3]. The Orionids get less help. Their October 21 peak ^[5][12] comes four to five days before the Hunter's Moon reaches full ^[23], and the guide flags the Moon as a potential obstacle to this year's display ^[8]. Discover, again citing NASA, puts the best viewing shortly before dawn, once the Moon has set ^[7].

The Draconids are an evening shower. NASA gives the peak as the evening of Thursday, October 8, with favorable viewing from about 9 p.m. EDT into the early hours of the 9th ^[3]. Many showers are best after midnight, but this one can be seen soon after nightfall ^[11]. Discover dates the peak to October 9 and, citing the Royal Museums Greenwich, recommends the evening after sunset ^[4]. Of the two, NASA's timing is the more specific ^[3][4]. Either way it is a modest shower, typically a handful of meteors an hour ^[15].

In NASA's guide, Halley's Comet is the source of the Orionids alone. They are fragments the comet left behind on its passes through the solar system, burning up as Earth crosses the trail ^[5]. The guide describes the Draconids by their radiant, the dragon constellation Draco ^[21]. Discover gives the Orionids' speed as 41 miles per second, fast enough for some to leave trains that last from a few seconds to minutes ^[6].

On the one event already past, the two accounts agree. NASA's guide says Jupiter stayed hidden behind the crescent for about an hour, from around 4 a.m. EDT in some places ^[1]. The Night Sky Network, as reported by Discover, put first contact at about 4:14 a.m. EDT and the duration at a little over an hour ^[2]. The occultation was visible to the naked eye, and observers with binoculars might have watched some of Jupiter's moons slip behind the lunar edge ^[14].

Discover counts three meteor showers this month, against the two in NASA's list of four events ^[10][13]. Its third, the Southern Taurids, has a first peak on October 14 at roughly five meteors an hour, though they can be very bright ^[17]. The American Meteor Society expects the bright "Halloween fireballs" more often at a second peak in early November ^[17]. Discover also lists Saturn at opposition on October 4, its brightest of the year, and the Royal Museums Greenwich says it stays large and bright through the fall ^[20]. Mercury reaches its greatest eastern elongation on October 12 ^[18]. On October 27 and 28 the Moon approaches the Pleiades, which NASA says can be seen without a telescope or binoculars ^[19].