As if one rare comet wasn’t exciting enough, our night sky will see even more celestial action over the weekend, with the Orionid meteor shower hitting its peak in the early Sunday and Monday morning.
According to NASA, the Orionid meteors originate from comet 1P/Halley, also known as Halley’s Comet, which orbits the sun about every 76 years. As it travels through space, the comet loses pieces from its nucleus and leaves a path of debris behind. The Earth intercepts this path in October every year, making the meteors visible generally between Sep. 26 and Nov. 22. This year the peak of the Orionid meteor shower will be on Sunday, Oct. 20 and Monday, Oct. 21.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of factors that may make viewing the meteor shower a little bit difficult. For one thing, you’ll need to be able to stay up late. The peak viewing time for these orionids is after midnight into the wee hours of the morning. The second issue – and probably the most difficult to overcome – is that the moon is very bright right now! The waning gibbous moon was full just earlier this week, and is currently not setting until 9:15 a.m. So, yes, the moon will be fully out and shining during the peak viewing hours.
Still, if you can manage to find an open, somewhat dark space, you should be able to catch some of the brighter meteors. To help optimize your viewing abilities, you might want to check out these tips from EarthSky on how to better view meteors in the moonlight.
Happy meteor watching!
