--- title: What You Need to Know About the Draconid Meteor Shower description: Expect to see the most meteors fall on Oct 8 canonical: https://time.com/4062858/draconid-meteor-shower/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-06T16:53:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:33:07.337Z article:section: Science og:title: Everything You Need to Know About the Draconid Meteor Shower og:description: Expect to see the most meteors fall on October 8. og:url: https://time.com/4062858/draconid-meteor-shower/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09dff2c987ab4ed7/698867120a4a2235699c66c7/draconid-meteor.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: View of a shooting star (Draconid) and n og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Everything You Need to Know About the Draconid Meteor Shower twitter:description: Expect to see the most meteors fall on October 8. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09dff2c987ab4ed7/698867120a4a2235699c66c7/draconid-meteor.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What You Need to Know About This Week's Draconid Meteor Shower by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 6, 2015 4:53 PM CUT  View of a shooting star (Draconid) and northern light near Skekarsbo at the Farnebofjardens national park 150 kilometers north of Stockholm, late on Oct. 8, 2011. View of a shooting star (Draconid) and northern light near Skekarsbo at the Farnebofjardens national park 150 kilometers north of Stockholm, late on Oct. 8, 2011.P-M Heden—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 6, 2015 4:53 PM CUT With the moon barely visible, the annual Draconid metor shower will put on a display of shooting stars the evenings of Oct. 8 and 9. Shooting from the mouth of the northern constellation Draco the Dragon, the Draconid meteor shower will be most visible in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the U.S., Canada, Europe and northern Asia. The Draconid showers occur when the Earth’s orbit crosses path with that of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, where debris from the comet burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. Michael Giacobini discovered the comet on December 20, 1900. The waning crescent moon isn’t expected to rise until the morning, so the night’s sky should be plenty dark to view the meteor shower. Find a dark, open sky and plan to spend a few hours looking north for the showers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4062858/draconid-meteor-shower/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4062858/draconid-meteor-shower/"},"headline":"Here's What You Need to Know About This Week's Draconid Meteor Shower","datePublished":"2015-10-06T16:53:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:33:07.337Z","description":"Expect to see the most meteors fall on Oct 8","url":"https://time.com/4062858/draconid-meteor-shower/","keywords":["astronomy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09dff2c987ab4ed7/698867120a4a2235699c66c7/draconid-meteor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09dff2c987ab4ed7/698867120a4a2235699c66c7/draconid-meteor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"View of a shooting star (Draconid) and n","caption":"View of a shooting star (Draconid) and n","creditText":"P-M Heden—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4062858/draconid-meteor-shower/","name":"Here's What You Need to Know About This Week's Draconid Meteor Shower"}}]}] ```