What does the third week of October mean to us? Yes, as indicated by the title, the earth is passing through the debris stream left by the Halley Comet. As a result, earthlings get the chance to watch the spectacular Orionids. The rate is about 60 meteors per hour.
As usual, the best time to watch meteor shower is before the dawn. This year is especially good since the moon is almost new, no moon light will interfere the show. As you get under the night sky, you will notice that the winter constellations (for northern hemisphere) are up which makes the sky spectacular again. For example, Orion, Gemini and Taurus. *I love winter celestial objects the most, especiall the Great Orion Nebula.
Set your alarm and enjoy the shower.
Since the show this year sounds to be good, I will be going with George Zhou tonight to Mt. Stromlo at 12.30am till 3am. I also borrowed Joan’s D90, hopefully I will catch some Orionids.
Why have Orionids become one of the best showers since 2006?
According to Japanese meteor scientists Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe, Earth first encountered some very old debris in 2006 which results in fireballs rich shower. The encounter produced good displays in 2007 and 2008. The good news is the meteoroids are expected to encounter earth in 2009 again.
More info at Science@NASA
I like meteor showers. When I was much younger there was a candy by the name of Orion-building on the samemeteor shower concept.
Hopefully we will be blessed with clear skies to see all of them:http://bit.ly/5VECfg