SOUTHERN TAURID METEOR SHOWER PEAKS TONIGHT - 09/10/2025

- Parent Body: Comet 2P / Encke 

- Radiant Constellation: Taurus 

- Shower activity between: 8th September – 20th November 

- Peak activity: 9th – 10th August 

- Peak meteor count: around 10 meteors per hour in perfect conditions 

The Southern Taurid meteor shower is a minor meteor shower that is active between September and November and under perfect conditions can produce up to 10 meteors per hour. 

UNFORTUNATELY, this year will not be the best for viewing meteors from the Southern Taurid shower due to the peak night occurring only 3 days after full Moon. This means that the Moon will be very bright, in the sky all night for the nights on and around the peak, and causing a lot of natural light pollution. The bright Moon means that the total number of visible meteors will be much lower than 10, with only the brighter meteors being visible through the moonlit skies. 

HOWEVER – It’s still worth keeping an eye on the skies as you may be treated to a bright fireball meteor. Furthermore, the Southern Taurids are active for a long period of time and so its worth looking out for meteors when the moon is not about too. 

All in all, it’s a great time to spot meteors and well worth spending an hour or two out stargazing and meteor watching on these beautiful autumn nights. 

If you would like more detailed information on the Southern Taurid meteor shower and meteors in general, including what meteors are, where they come from, what you need to know about to maximise your chances of viewing meteors, plus our personal recommendations for when and where to look, please read on… 

The Southern Taurid Meteor Shower is so named because the radiant point from which its meteors appear to radiate from is located within the constellation of Taurus – the bull. 

The Southern Taurid meteor shower occurs every September to November when the planet Earth passes through a cloud of debris left behind by comet 2P/Encke. This year the shower is active between the 8th of September to the 20th of November and peaks on the evening of the 9th into the morning of the 10th of October. 

Although the Southern Taurid shower may not be the most prolific of meteor showers, its active period spans a large amount of time, providing a prolonged light sprinkling of meteors over two months. The reason why the Southern Taurids occur over such a prolonged period of time is that the debris from Comet Encke that causes these meteors is very thinly spread out and it takes the Earth a relatively long time to pass through this material. 

Most meteor showers are caused by comet debris that crosses Earth’s orbit, some showers are caused by asteroid debris. 

The Southern Taurid meteor shower is caused by the trail of debris left by the Comet 2P/Encke - the second comet discovered to have a short orbital period. 

This comet was discovered four times before it was named. 2P was first discovered by Pierre Mechian in 1786. The second discoverer was Caroline Herschel, who observed the comet in 1795 and tracked it for 23 days. A decade later the famous French comet hunter Jean-Louis Pons observed the comet in 1805. Not long after Pons’ discovery, Hofrath Huth in Germany and Bovard in Paris observed the comet and tracked it for 32 days. In 1818 Pons re-discovered the comet and tracked it for 48 days. Using the data gathered from all of these sightings, an astronomer named Johann Franz Encke predicted the periodicity of the comet. His first attempt at predicting its periodicity was incorrect, but by using new computing techniques he correctly discovered that the comets orbital period was 3.3 years. The comet was named after Encke for his work on discovering the comets orbital period. 

Like all comets, 2P is a ball of dust, ice, rock and dark organic material. Comet 2P/Encke has the shortest orbital period of any major comet in our solar system and at it’s closest approach to the Sun, it gets as close to the Sun as the planet Mercury. 

As a comet or asteroid travels through space, it leaves a trail of dust and debris behind it. When Earth intersects these trails, we slam into the dust and debris in their wake. The debris then enters the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly high speed, generating immense amounts of energy that is released in the form of intense heat and light. Meteors tend to vary from the size of a sand grain to about as big as a pea. The bigger the piece of debris, the bigger and brighter the meteor. 

When a meteoroid particle strikes the upper atmosphere at high speed, it heats up to around 1,650°C and starts to glow. The meteoroid also compresses and heats the air in front of it, exciting atoms like oxygen which in turn radiate light. Together, the two processes produce the bright, needle-like flashes known as meteors or "shooting stars." 

Occasionally, a meteoroid may be large enough to survive its fiery journey through our atmosphere, landing somewhere on Earth. When a meteoroid manages to land on our planet, it becomes known as a meteorite. 

When meteoroids burn up in our atmosphere, they can sometimes create beautifully colourful trails behind them. The colours that meteors display are partly caused by the presence of traces of elements such as sodium, iron and calcium, the same elements that are used to make fireworks colourful. 

These elements become ionised as they travel through Earth’s atmosphere and emit a beautiful range of different coloured meteor trails as their particles burn up in the atmosphere. The colours that are emitted depend on the elements being excited. 

Here are the colours associated with different elements found in meteors: 👇 

🟠 Orange-yellow — sodium; 

🟡 Yellow — iron; 

🔵 Blue-green — magnesium; 

🟣 Violet — calcium; 

🔴 Red — atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen. 

The speed at which the meteor enters the Earth’s atmosphere can also affect the colour. The faster a meteor moves, the more intense it’s colour may appear. 

On rare occasions, when a meteoroid is large enough, it is possible to view extremely bright meteors which are known as “Fireballs”. A meteor is called a fireball when it reaches a magnitude (brightness) equal to or brighter than that of the planet Venus. Venus is about -4 in magnitude, a meteor must be brighter than this to be known as a fireball. These fireballs are so bright that they can easily be seen in heavily light-polluted areas such as cities. 

On very rare occasions, it is possible to view meteors that explode and separate into several pieces in the sky. We have been treated to sights of a couple of these at the public stargazing events that we run in Dalby Forest. These explosive meteors are known as “bolides” and can outshine the bright full moon. They are an incredible sight to witness. 

There are a few things to consider in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors from a meteor shower. 

The main thing you need to consider when looking for meteors from a meteor shower is the date when the Earth travels it’s furthest into the trail of debris left by the parent comet or asteroid. Around this period of time there will be a higher number of meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere, this is the peak of the meteor shower. 

The next most important thing to consider for many showers is the time that the radiant for the meteor shower will be high in the sky. The higher the radiant is in your visible sky, the higher your chances of viewing meteors will be. However, sometimes the radiant for a shower may not be at its highest point in the sky when the skies are dark. 

You must also take the brightness of the skies into account along with the radiant’s location in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors. 

There are also other factors such as the Earth weather, the conditions of your viewing location and the Moon’s position and phase that will affect how easy it is to view meteors and need to be considered. 

This year the Southern Taurid meteor shower is active between the 8th September – 20th November. 

The peak night where the meteor shower will be most active will be the evening of the 9th of October into the morning of the 10th. 

However, due to the bright moon that will be in the sky all night long during the peak, only the bright meteors from the shower will be visible and it may be easier to spot meteors once the moon has waned a little more after a few days' time. 

To help you know where is best to look for meteors it helps to understand a little about meteor shower radiants. 

Meteors from a specific meteor shower will appear to originate from a specific area of the sky which is known as the “radiant”. 

The radiant for the Southern Taurid meteor shower can be located in the constellation of Taurus the bull. 

The constellation of Taurus can be found below the constellation of Perseus and to the right of the bright star Capella and the constellation Auriga. Taurus can be identified most easily by the bright orange coloured star Aldebaran and the famous star cluster the Pleiades aka the Seven Sisters. 

You don’t need to know exactly where the meteors radiate from because meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. However, knowing where the radiant is may help you increase your chances of viewing meteors if you follow this top tip: 

Top Tip! - If you can locate the radiant, try looking at a dark part of the sky around 45 degrees away from the radiant to maximise your chances of viewing meteors. Meteors seen closer to the radiant will appear shorter / leave shorter trails compared to others further away from the radiant. 

Cool Fact! - You can tell if a meteor belongs to a specific shower by tracing a line backwards from the direction it appeared to travel in across the sky. If this line leads you close to the radiant’s location, you can safely bet that meteor belonged to that specific meteor shower. 

The main thing you need to know about a meteor shower radiant, is that it has risen above the horizon. Once the radiant has risen in the sky there will be a higher chance of seeing meteors, and the higher the radiant has risen, the more meteors will be visible. 

With many meteor showers (the Moon aside) the best time to head out and watch meteor showers is usually on the peak night between midnight and dawn, when the radiant is (usually) high in the sky and the skies are darkest. Don’t worry if you can’t head out this late, there should still be plenty of meteors about earlier in the night. 

On the night of the peak for the Southern Taurid meteor shower (09/10/2025), the radiant will rise above the North-Eastern horizon at roughy 19:43 BST. From here the radiant will climb higher in the sky travelling towards the South where it will reach its highest point in the sky, 50 degrees high at roughly 03:14 BST. From here the radiant will begin descending travelling to the West and will disappear in the morning twilight. 

If you head out early in the night, you might also be treated to something called an “Earth grazer” meteor (long, slow, colourful meteors that skim across the edge of our atmosphere). 

The location that you do your stargazing from can make a big difference to the amount of stars and in this case shooting stars that are possible to see in the night sky. The less light there is around your viewing location, the more your eyes will adapt to the darkness, the darker the skies will be and the more of the fainter meteors from a shower will be visible. 

Ideally for meteor showers and generally enjoying the night sky, you want to find a safe dark location, with clear views of the sky, and as far away from sources of light such as street lights as possible. 

Even though the Moon will be very bright for the Southern Taurid peak this year, meaning the overall darkness of the skies will not be at its best, your meteor viewing experience will always be better with as little light pollution around as possible. 

When out meteor watching, in order to view as many meteors as possible it helps to help your eyes become adapted to seeing faint objects in the sky. 

Try not to look at sources of light such as your mobile phone or the Moon for around 15 minutes or so, this will allow your eyes become dark adapted. After around 15-30 minutes of letting your eyes adapt to the dark, the pupils of your eyes will dilate to their maximum aperture and the receptors in your eyes that are responsible for low light vision will have fully activated. This will allow your eyes to gather more light and more fainter night sky objects will be easier to see. 

If you need to use a torch to light your way, we recommend using a torch that emits only red light. Red light has much less of an effect on your night vision than white light. 

If you want to use your phone, use it on its lowest brightness and you can always cover the screen with a red film to minimise its effect on your night vision. Star map/planetarium apps such as Stellarium often have a night mode that displays only in red light which can also help you keep your night vision. 

Another tip to help you see more on nights with a bright moon is to keep the moon out of sight. If you have a large tree or building nearby to your location, try blocking the moon from your line of sight with the tree/building. This can help stop a bright moon from ruining your dark adapted night vision. 

Sometimes the glow of the Moon can interfere with a meteor shower and spoil meteor shower views by lighting up the night sky and washing out the fainter meteors. When the Moon is bright it leaves only the brightest of meteors visible. 

Unfortunately for this year’s peak night of the Southern Taurid meteor shower, the waning gibbous Moon will be 89% illuminated and in the sky all night long. This means the Moon will be creating quite a lot of natural light pollution and only the brighter meteors will be visible through the moon illuminated skies. 

Following the advice above will help you maximise your chances of seeing meteors. But if you want our personal recommendations for this year’s Southern Taurids: 

- The peak night of the 9th of October will be when the Southern Taurids will be most active, but several nights after the peak, the Moon will be out of the way early on in the night. So, if possible, head out early on the nights after the peak too! 

- Try to keep the Moon out of sight - keep your back to the Moon or block it from your view with something such as your car, a building or a nearby tree. This will ensure you are looking into the darker areas of the sky (man-made light pollution aside) and will minimise the Moons effect on your night vision. 

- If you can, try find a nice safe location away from the light pollution of towns/cities with clear views of most of the sky and with no lights nearby. Even though the skies will be fairly bright because of the Moon, man-made light pollution will only add to the brightness of your skies (especially closer to the horizon)! Also, this year try not to have any light pollution North of you because of our last tip: 

- Meteors can be seen anywhere in the sky, but you are more likely to see meteors around 45 degrees away from the radiant. Although the Moon will be causing a lot of light pollution you can use the moon to tell you where to focus in order to maximise your chances of seeing meteors. As the Moon will be located next to the radiant try looking around 45 degrees either side of the Moon. 

We hope that these tips will help you catch some shooting stars! 😊 

There are also quite a few other celestial treats to look out for during the night at this point in time: 

There are several other meteor showers active around this time too! As an extra meteor watching challenge try reverse-tracing the trajectories of the meteors you observe and see if you see any that aren’t part of the Southern Taurid shower! 

The amazing ringed planet Saturn will be visible all night long. Saturn can be found in the constellation of Aquarius the water bearer - just below the great square of Pegasus. 

If you are observing during the morning look out for the bright planet Jupiter in the constellation of Gemini. 

The super bright planet Venus can also be spotted towards the eastern horizon during the early morning hours before sunrise. 

The glowing open star cluster the Pleiades (aka the Seven Sisters) can be seen right next to the early in the night and the Moon will actually travel in front of the Pleiades as the night progresses. 

These are just a few of the amazing sights that can be seen in our night skies at the moment. 

If you would like to know more about the rest of the celestial treats that can be seen in the skies throughout October, please head to our YouTube channel to watch our Night Sky Guide video for October 2025. 

• You don’t need a telescope or any special equipment to view meteors, just your eyes and a bit of patience. 

• If you do own binoculars or a telescope, you may want to take a closer look at some of the amazing celestial treats that are currently visible in our night skies. Saturn with its majestic ring system, Jupiter with its great weather bands and great red spot, the Pleiades with its faint nebulous glow, the amazing Andromeda galaxy and the sparkling Hercules cluster all are spectacular to view with binoculars or a telescope. 

• Find a safe, dark location with clear unobstructed views and as far away from streetlights as possible. The darker your location, the more meteors you will see. However, don’t worry too much if you can’t get somewhere dark, you should still see the brighter meteors. 

• Allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness and you will see more meteors. Our eyes require time to adjust to low levels of light. Try not to look at bright lights (such as a phone) for around 15-30 minutes and this will allow you to see many more meteors. If you do require to use a torch, use one which emits red light as this interferes with your night vision much less than white light. 

• Be mindful of other stargazers when using a torch, you don’t want to ruin other people’s meteor shower experience! 

• You don’t need to know where the radiant for a meteor shower is to be able to view meteors but if you do, it can help. Once you’ve located the radiant in the sky, looking halfway between the horizon and the zenith (directly upwards), and 45 degrees from the radiant will improve your chances of viewing meteors (however, pay attention to the whole sky as they can appear anywhere). The closer to the radiant you look, the shorter the meteors will appear. The further away from the radiant you look, the longer they will appear. 

• You can tell if a meteor belongs to a specific shower by tracing a line backwards from the direction it appeared to travel in across the sky. If this line leads you to the radiant’s location, you can tell that meteor belonged to that specific meteor shower. 

• You might want to take a blanket to lay on or a chair to recline in, so your neck doesn’t get strained whilst looking up. 

• If you head out, wrap up well! It can get quite chilly on a night, and if you are not prepared, you may end up being too cold to stay out and see any meteors. Bring a blanket to cover yourself in and a flask with a warm drink for extra comfort. ❄️🧤🧣 

• You may wish to gather some of your friends and family to share this magical occasion too. You could always host a meteor watching party with music and drinks (but no bright lights!). 

Although this shower isn’t the most prolific and we have the bright moon about, we are excited to have the chance to see some more amazing meteors and are looking forward to the Southern Taurid meteor shower. We can’t wait to see if we witness more amazing fireballs during the rest of the meteor shower and we hope you all get to see some too! 

As ever, interactions or shares are a great help, and we are eternally grateful for all your support. 

Good luck everyone and clear skies!!! 💖

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