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Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tomorrow Morning

Posted by Soulskill on from the lights-in-the-sky dept.

New submitter blastoff9 sends this excerpt from Space.com: "The annual October meteor shower will peak before sunrise on Saturday (Oct. 22) as the Earth passes through a stream of leftover dust from the famous Halley's Comet. The Orionid meteor shower promises to offer skywatchers with a dark sky and good weather up to 15 meteors per hour at its peak, according to a NASA forecast.... The Orionids are visible each year, even though Halley's comet only swings by about every 75 years. This is because comets leave a trail of volatile ices and dust along their orbital path that hangs around long after the comets have come and gone."

1 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. One good reason to live in the country by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You may be miles away from cinemas, galleries, theatres, bars or whatever you like to do in your free time but there is at least one consolation to living in the arse end of nowhere: the sky. Even living in quite a small town for most of my formative years, where I could see many more stars than people living in nearby cities I didn't truly realise what I was missing until I went camping my mid twenties.

    I urge everyone in every urban centre everywhere to venture out, even just once in your life, away into the countryside. Pack a tent, wait until it's dark and your eyes have adjusted, then simply look up. The word awesome doesn't even begin to describe what you will see on a clear night even with your naked eyes.

    I wish you all good seeing and a good night, meteor shower or not.