Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight (Discovery News)

[pinto]

Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight
Content provided by Tariq Malik

The Orionid meteor shower will rain bits of Halley's Comet on Earth tonight in a promising weekend "shooting star" display. You can even watch the celestial fireworks online if bad weather spoils your local view.

The 2012 Orionid meteor shower will peak early Sunday (Oct. 21), but should still be an impressive sight throughout the overnight hours of late Saturday, NASA scientists say. The space agency will stream live meteor shower views from an all-sky camera at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the Orionids," meteor expert Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said in a statement. "Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour."

The best time to see the Orionid meteor shower is before sunrise on Sunday morning. At that time, Earth will be passing through the densest part of the Halley's Comet debris stream.

http://news.discovery.com/space/orionid-meteor-shower-121020.html

[RomneyLies]

1. Thanks for posting!

If it's clear tonight in my neck of the woods, I'll go out with some binoculars!

[repiblikensouse]

5. I think you'll find you don't need binoculars.

It's been my experience that meteors are generally close enough to see with the naked eye and that the small field of view afforded by optics, will cause you to miss many of those that occur outside of that field.

[RomneyLies]

6. My binoculars have a wide field of vision.

I'll be able to watch the entire area where the shower occurs.

[chknltl]

2. Thanks for the alert pinto. nt

[pinboy3niner]

3. Spectacular photo posted in Photography Group

Orionid meteor shower this weekend. Amazingly beautiful shot - not mine though, linked
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10369873

[pinto]

4. Amazing piece of photography. I see it was a grand prize winner.

Thanks for passing it on.

[kentuck]

7. I remember standing in a line at Fort Campbell, Kentucky....

in basic training, about this same time of the year in 1966.

It was still dark and we were waiting to get some chow. The meteor shower was all around us and I seemed to be the only person that even noticed. Wow! There's another! I still think of how strange that was even to this day.

[H2O Man]

8. Recommended.

I'll be watching!