Orionid meteor showers light up the sky soon

NASA as "one of the most beautiful showers" of the year is expected to peak in the coming days.

The Orionids are known for their brightness and speed, NASA said, with the meteors traveling at about 148,000 miles per hour, or 41 miles per second. Because of their speed, some of the meteors visible during the shower leave trains, made of debris, that appear to glow in the wake of the meteor. 

NASA said the meteors are also "framed by some of the brightest stars in the night sky," which creates a "spectacular backdrop" to watch the meteor shower against. 

The Orionid meteor shower peaks sometime between Friday night, Oct. 20, and Sunday, Oct. 22. The American Meteor Society (AMS) predicts the peak will occur tonight into the early morning hours of Saturday, while the skywatching site EarthSky predicts the peak will occur Saturday night into the early morning hours on Sunday.

Regardless of the exact evening, there's good news for stargazers, the moon is only 37% full on Friday which means the skies should be reasonably dark to see most of the meteors throughout the weekend.

The real source of the meteors is comet 1P/Halley, aka Halley's Comet. When Earth's atmosphere passes through Halley's dust trail, the dust disintegrates and voila! A meteor appears.

Orionid meteor shower is a kind of like a treat to tide over Earthlings between full viewings of Halley's comet, which only happens roughly every 76 years. (Fun fact: When this same sequence of events happens in May, the shower is called the Eta Aquarids.)

This will be a very good year to look for these shooting stars, since the moon will be at first quarter (half) phase and will set at around 11:30 p.m. local daylight time on Saturday night, Oct. 21 and will not pose any hindrance at all for those watching for Orionids during their prime predawn viewing hours.

But to see the greatest number of meteors, don't look in the direction of the radiant, but rather about 30 degrees from it, in the direction of the point directly overhead (the zenith). Your clenched fist held at arm's length is roughly equivalent to 10-degrees, so looking "three fists" up from Betelgeuse, the star that forms Orion's left shoulder, will be where to concentrate your view

Halley's Comet, which orbits the sun every 76 years. The particles left behind by the comet create the Orionids.

It's possible to spot up to 30 meteors per hour, but EarthSky says to expect about 10 to 20 per hour under a dark sky with no moon.

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Sarah H

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