Meteor show:
A moonless sky should make for great viewing of the Orionid meteor shower going into this weekend. The peak of the shower when you are likely to see the most meteors will occur tonight through dawn Saturday. Viewing tips,
A dark, moonless sky should make for great viewing of the Orionid meteor shower going into this weekend.
“This is about as good as it gets,” said Adam Block, who works at Steward Observatory in the University of Arizona’s Department of Astronomy.
The peak of the shower occurs tonight, after midnight, through dawn Saturday. But you may see meteors a few nights after the peak as well.
Here are viewing tips:
Where to look in the sky
Meteors will occur across the sky, so you don’t need to focus on any one area. Astronomers predict the shower will produce about 20-30 meteors per hour.
That averages out to one meteor every three or four minutes, although you won’t be able to spot every meteor. Some will faint and easily missed.
When is the best viewing?
Shower activity is the greatest after midnight. That’s when the Earth has turned and faces directly into the stream of dust particles that produce the meteors.
You need to be patient. Just stare at the sky for a while, Block said.
Devote at least an hour, and he guarantees you will see some meteors.
How to see as many as possible
Get away from city lights, if you can. If you can’t leave the city, find the darkest spot in your yard away from the
glare of street and house lights.
You don’t need binoculars or a telescope. Using these devices can actually reduce the number of meteors you see because they focus on only part of the sky.
“Just kick back, look up and pay attention to as much of the sky as you can,” said Patrick Young, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.
What causes this meteor shower?
The Orionids happens once a year, when the Earth passes through debris from Halley’s Comet
Dust from the comet falls toward Earth and burns up in the atmosphere as a meteor. Meteors — also called shooting stars or falling stars — occur throughout the year. But when the Earth passes through particularly dense areas of dust, the result is a meteor shower.
The Orionid produces fewer meteors per hour than the Perseid meteor shower in August and the Geminid in December. But the Orionid occurs in milder weather.
The Perseid can sometimes be obscured in Arizona by monsoon clouds while the Geminid, which peaks Dec. 13 this year, happens during chilly weather.
ASU’s Young said the Orionid has the possibility to be more impressive than other meteor showers because the particles that burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere move faster than in other meteor showers.