Haley’s comet in 1986.
NASA
This Draconid meteor shower And a wonderful show Mars in the night sky October serves as the starting act for the October headliner: the annual Orionid meteor shower has already appeared and peaked later this month.
Orionids are actually bits of dust and debris, left behind by the famous comet Haley on its previous voyages through the inner solar system. Every year around this time the comet turns our planet through the cloud as a piece of caterpillar rock, slam all the cosmic pebbles and fine dust in our upper atmosphere and burns up as “shooting stars” and even a display of the occasional fireball we see on the ground.
Orionides is considered a major meteor shower based on the amount of visible meteors that can be seen running towards the inevitable doom during its active period, lasting from about the first week of October to the first week of November.
The show is already active, and the American Meteorological Society predicts that a number of meteors per hour could appear over the next several days, reaching peaks on October 20 and October 21, while the number could rise to 20 per hour. Is. .
Orionids may feature the old phrase “blink and you may miss it”, as they enter our atmosphere at extremely fast speeds of about 147,000 miles per hour (66 kilometers per second). That said, a fair amount of these meteors leave a continuous trail that lasts for a few seconds. Some pieces also happen and break up in a more stunning fashion.
2020 Incredible meteor shower photos shine in a dark year
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To capture the show, the advice is the same as for all celestial spectator events: find a place away from light pollution with a wide open view of the night sky. Bundle if necessary, put back, relax and let your eyes adjust. You don’t have to focus on any part of the sky, but the Orionids are named because their trail originates from the same area of the sky and appears as a constellation. Bright star.
The perfect best time to see the Orionids in 2020 is probably the early morning hours on October 21, but this shower is known for the extended peak, so if you get up you should have a good chance to see some meteors. Initially a few days before or after that peak date.
The lunar peak will be arranged hours before the morning view, so this will be another glory this year. Enjoy the show and, as always, please share any great meteor shots you got with me on Twitter Ericsson.
