Orionid meteor shower set to serve up plenty of shooting stars for wishing
Get out your sleeping bags, bundle up and prepare to stay up past bedtime.
The annual Orionid meteor shower is peaking this month, and Tuesday night into Wednesday, at about 1 or 2 in the morning (that is, early Wednesday), is the best time to watch.
“Orionid meteors are known for their brightness and for their speed,” NASA said, noting that they slam into our atmosphere – or, more accurately, Earth sweeps through debris left by Halley’s Comet – at 148,000 mph, about 40 miles per second.
Fast meteors can streak through the sky, leaving a trail of light that lasts for several seconds or even as long as a few minutes, NASA said in a statement. And that’s not all.
“Fast meteors can also sometimes become fireballs,” NASA said. “Look for prolonged explosions of light when viewing the Orionid meteor shower.”
Adding to the spectacle are the stars that frame this particular shower, NASA noted – some of the sky’s brightest lights lend a stunning backdrop.
Also helping is the fact that the moon is a waxing crescent that will set before midnight, so there will be zero moonlight to contend with, unlike with other recent meteor showers.
The shower is so named because it appears to emanate from the constellation Orion, which gets its name from the Greek mythological figure known to western eyes as a hunter, but which has captured the human imagination for millennia as anything from a canoe to a warrior.
Orion will rise in the east in the hours after midnight, according to Earthsky.org. Though the shooting stars appear to radiate from there, one does not have to be staring at it to detect the meteors. The space shards stream out in all directions, peppering the entire sky.
Indeed, one may even see fewer meteors by staring at the radiant point, Space.com noted.
“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),” Space.com advises. “Your clenched fist held at arm’s length is roughly equivalent to 10 degrees wide, so looking ‘three fists’ up from Betelgeuse will be where to concentrate your view.”
Betelgeuse is the second-brightest star in Orion and forms the shoulder of the figure known as the hunter, as Space.com’s detailed illustration shows.
The best viewing vantage point is a wide-open area away from city lights, Earthsky said.
While the Orionids are not typically as bright as other showers during the year, they can still be a treat. Moreover, “there is some evidence that a larger than usual peak may occur sometime between 2020 and 2022,” according to NASA. You never know.
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