Here's When the Next Meteor Shower Will Arrive After Tonight's Perseids

Watching the Perseids peak this weekend may have left you with an intense desire for another night lying under shooting stars. Or maybe you missed the show entirely and want to know when your next chance will arrive. (There's still time to see it! Here's how you can see the Perseid meteor shower, and how to photograph the Perseids.) Fortunately, there are still opportunities to see a meteor shower before the end of the year. 

This year's Perseids rained down around a meteor per minute. That's an incredible rate. There's only one display this year that will surpass that rate, and you'll have to wait until December to catch the Geminids. But, even if every shower can't have the perfect conditions, there's something to be enjoyed in each event. 

Below you'll find the meteor showers you can still catch this year. 

The Orionids

The next great shower will peak on October 21. The Orionid meteor shower is the second of two annual displays stemming from the remains of Halley's Comet. Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office told Thrillist previously that the best time to catch the Orionids will be just before dawn. The display is projected to produce between 20 and 30 meteors per hour.

The Leonids

The Leonids won't reach the heights of the Orionids or either of the December displays. This shower peaks on November 17 and is only expected to produce 10 to 20 meteors per hour this year. Even worse, the Leonids will land near a full moon, which will make it hard to see the meteors that are are there. 

However, the Leonids are still special. It's a strange storm that can be a little paltry, but every now and then the display has an outburst year and produces a show like no other. The first time there was an outburst recorded, people thought the world was ending. Cooke says, in those instances, the Leonids can produce more than 1,000 meteors per hour. It last happened in 2002 and isn't expected to take place again until 2032. 

The Geminids

Following the Leonids, the Geminids peak on December 14. The weather isn't likely to be great -- it is December, after all -- but no meteor shower will produce more meteors per hour at peak than the Geminids. Cooke tells Thrillist we could see between 120 and 160 meteors per hour.

The Ursids

Cooke says some call these the "Cursed Ursids," because the show peaks on December 22. It's just before Christmas and generally doesn't produce a prodigious number of meteors per hour. However, this could be an outburst year, according to Cooke. That means you may see as many as 30 to 40 meteors per hour when the Ursids peak. Unfortunately, it's not a shower that generally produces bright fireballs, and it'll land the night of a full moon.

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Dustin Nelson is a News Writer with Thrillist. He holds a Guinness World Record but has never met the fingernail lady. Follow him @dlukenelson.