On Wednesday night, Our planet plows through the center of the debris trail left many years ago by the famous Comet Halley. This results in the Orionid Meteor Shower, which actually spans a few weeks. Sometime during the overnight on October 21st, the shower's peak is reached giving upwards of 25 meteors per hour as viewed from a dark sky site. The meteor streaks are the sand size pieces of the comet's tail quickly entering our upper atmosphere.
Begin observing after 11:00 p.m. when the "club" portion of the constellation Orion rises directly east. At this time, both the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel lie near the horizon. As the night proceeds, this grouping of stars rises higher making more meteors visible.
Such is our view from Earth ...
No comments:
Post a Comment