Night sky highlights - October 2026

As our nights become longer, this October you can see Saturn at its best and brightest, a meteor shower originating from Halley’s Comet, and the Hunter’s Moon to put you in the mood for spooky season.

By Alexa (work experience student) and Jess Lee, Royal Observatory astronomer

Top 3 things to see in the night sky in October 2026

• 4 October (all night) - Saturn reaches opposition
• 21 October (midnight until dawn) - the Orionid meteor shower peaks
• 24 October (all night) - Saturn and the Moon meet in the sky

See Saturn at opposition

Planet fans will have a great opportunity to see Saturn at its best when the ringed gas giant reaches opposition on 4 October. Opposition is when a planet appears on the opposite side of our sky to the Sun, meaning it appears at its brightest and remains highly visible all night long.

Saturn will be easy to spot throughout autumn, but sets increasingly earlier each night until it disappears before midnight by January. This makes this three-month window the ideal time to look for it.

Saturn appears as the brightest star-like object in the southern sky, moving from southeast to southwest over the evening and taking on a steady golden glow. Whilst it’s visible with the naked eye, a pair of binoculars will enhance the colour. With a telescope, meanwhile, you'll be able to see Saturn’s iconic rings.

Saturn will be very close to the Moon (and Neptune if you use binoculars or a telescope) in the night sky from about 9pm to 3am on 24-25 October, seeming to stick together as they move from east to west.

Learn more about opposition here

October's Hunter's Moon

From around 5.30pm to 6am on the night of 25-26, October’s full Moon can be seen clearly with the naked eye, near the constellation of Pisces. The exact moment the Moon is ‘full’, when it reaches exactly 180 degrees opposite the Sun in ecliptic longitude, will be at 4.12am on 26 October. To our eyes, though, it will look identical throughout the night.

As the Moon rises in the late afternoon it might appear orange. This is due to reflected sunlight filtering through our atmosphere, creating a spooky sight that perfectly sets the stage for Halloween five days later. However, as the Moon rises further above the horizon you’ll notice this colour fade. 

This full Moon is popularly known as the Hunter’s Moon due to its historic importance for hunter-gatherer societies in the Northern Hemisphere. Traditionally, in both Native American tribes and early European agricultural societies (amongst many others), people would begin to prepare and stock meat for the winter during October, with the Hunter’s Moon being a natural indicator to start doing so.

Whilst this moon has lost that purpose over time, it’s still well worth wrapping up to take a peek and maybe snap a few pictures. 

Catch a Draconid meteor

October is also host to a moderate but unique shower called the Draconids. This shower, originating from comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, will be active from 6-10 October in the northwestern sky, with its radiant point just about coinciding with the head of Draco, the dragon.

The Draconids are unusual as their radiant point appears highest in the sky as darkness falls. This means that you can see it better in the evening rather than after midnight, which is when most meteor showers tend to be more visible. 

This shower peaks in the early evening on 9 October, with a respectable average rate of about 10 meteors under ideal conditions. However, due to Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner reaching perihelion (the point in its orbit closest to the Sun) in March 2025 and the comet - along with its trail of leftover debris - consequently still being relatively close to Earth, there is a slim chance that we will see a storm of Draconid meteors much higher than its usual rate. 

Again, this is a slim chance, but the Draconids have been known to occasionally spike in activity and this is still a great little minor shower.

Stay up late for the Orionids

From 2 October to 7 November, the Orionids - considered to be one of the most beautiful showers of the year, despite their slower rate - speed through our atmosphere. And when I say ‘speed’, I’m not exaggerating; these meteors are very fast, travelling at about 41 miles (66 kilometres) per second. They can leave trails in their wake that can last from several seconds to minutes.

As their name implies, the Orionid shower’s radiant - the point in the sky from which they appear to come from - is the constellation of Orion. However, it is advised to not look only at the radiant when viewing this shower: the Orionids are visible throughout the whole night sky, and will appear longer and more spectacular from 45 to 90 degrees away from the radiant.

The Orionids originate from possibly the most famous comet of all time, Comet 1P/Halley. These meteors begin as leftover comet dust or particles that spread into a trail around Halley’s orbit, and every year Earth passes through this debris, allowing the pieces to collide with our atmosphere and disintegrate into the fiery streaks we love to watch.

While the Orionids are generally visible throughout this entire month-long window, they reach their peak rate of meteors per hour on the night of 21-22 October. If you can stay awake in as dark a place as possible until after 2am, when the waxing gibbous Moon sets, you should see a modest yet beautiful shower. Up to 15 meteors an hour should be visible with the naked eye.

Moon phases in October 2026

• Third quarter - 3 October (2.25pm)
• New moon – 10 October (4.50pm)
• First quarter – 18 October (5.13pm)
• Full moon – 26 October (4.12am)

Stargazing tips

When looking at faint objects such as stars, nebulae, the Milky Way and other galaxies, it is important to allow your eyes to adapt to the dark so that you can achieve better night vision.

Allow 15 minutes for your eyes to become sensitive in the dark, and remember not to look at your mobile phone or any other bright device when stargazing.

If you're using a stargazing app on your phone, switch on the red night vision mode.

Header image: Meteor Shower Over the Big Dipper © ZhiPu Wang - shortlisted in ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026 Skyscapes category