The Taurid meteor shower could put on its best show this week — keep your eyes peeled for fireballs

If the skies are clear these next few nights, take a few moments to look up. You just might be lucky and catch a glimpse of a spectacularly bright meteor — a Taurid meteor streaking across the sky.

While most meteor shower displays last about a week, the Taurids have perhaps the longest duration of overall visibility. Meteors from this particular stream begin appearing in mid-October and continue into right on mid-November. Nov. 5 through Nov. 12 is traditionally the time frame when these slow and majestic meteors are at their best.

Unfortunately, in 2025, this display has — so far — been seriously hindered by the presence of a brilliant moon. The moon turned full Nov. 5 with brilliant moonlight flooding the sky much of the night, and pretty much washing out all but the brightest meteors. Thereafter, however, the moon has been setting later in the evening and has been slowly waning in brightness. Last quarter is this coming Wednesday (Nov. 12) and thereafter the moon will be a progressively thinning crescent.

So, with each passing night, the moon has been rising about an hour later and the window of dark sky hours (prior to moonrise) has opened a little wider. This Wednesday night (Nov. 12) is probably the best night to watch, as there will be about 4 hours of dark, moonless skies to look for Taurids. Moonrise will come just after midnight, early Thursday morning.

Each evening, up until the time the moon comes above the horizon, up to about 15 meteors may appear per hour. They are often yellowish-orange and, as meteors go, appear to move rather slowly. Their name comes from the way they seem to radiate from the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which sits low in the east a couple of hours after sundown and is almost directly overhead by around 1:30 a.m.

Meteors — popularly referred to as "shooting stars" — are generated when debris enters and burns up in Earth's atmosphere. In the case of the Taurids, they are attributed to debris left behind by Comet Encke, which are noticeably larger fragments than those shed by other comets, which is why this meteor stream occasionally delivers a few unusually bright meteors known as "fireballs." Encke's has the shortest known orbital period for a comet, taking only 3.3 years to make one complete trip around the sun. Many fireballs reported in the months of October and November belong to this stream. A field mark of the Taurids is that they are among the slowest of meteors, encountering Earth at only 17 miles (27 km) per second.

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The related meteors appear to diverge from a spot on the sky just to the south of the Pleiades. So, if during these next few nights, you catch sight of a slightly tinted orange meteor sliding rather lazily away from that famous little smudge of stars, you can feel sure you've just caught sight of a Taurid.

Don't forget the Leonids!

The Taurids are not the only significant meteor display in November. We can also look forward to the famous Leonid meteors, which are due to reach their peak on Tuesday morning, Nov. 18. The moon will be just a couple of days from new, making this a very favorable year to watch for these ultra-swift streaks of light that will appear to emanate from out of the Sickle of the constellation Leo. The Sickle is rising in the northeast around midnight and will stand high in the south-southeast at the break of dawn. Unlike the Taurids, the Leonids last less than a week, with maximum hourly counts near 10, though this varies from year to year. Stupendous meteor storms are possible around the years when the Leonids parent-comet, 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, sweeps through the inner solar system. The comet's next visit to the sun's vicinity is not due until the year 2031. Many meteor experts believe that we'll be in line for another major outburst of Leonids in November 2034. That's nine years from now . . . so mark your calendars.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope and other publications.