[Post reconstruction in progress after 25.10.07 hack (body, comments and images to follow)]:
Don’t forget the Orionids over the next night or two (peaking late tonight, the wee hours of Sunday morning). As the name implies, look for them coming from Orion, although even if you don’t know exactly where that is, you’ll see them almost anywhere you look in the sky if you’ve enough dark. Recall that Orion has those three bright equally spaced stars in a line, making up his belt. I spoke about this, and gave more directions about the Orionids in a post last year.
There’s a Space.com piece by Joe Rao with more discussion. About sightings, it says:
Expect to see few, if any Orionids before midnight – especially this year, with a bright waxing gibbous Moon glaring high in the western sky.
But moonset is around 1:30 a.m. local daylight time on Sunday, and that’s a good time to begin preparing for your meteor vigil. At its best several hours later, at around 5:00 a.m. when Orion is highest in the sky toward the south, Orionids typically produce around 20 to 25 meteors per hour under a clear, dark sky.
Today’s StarDate (as usual, read on NPR by the wonderful Sandy Wood) has a piece on it too. Here’s an extract from the transcript (written by Damond Benningfield):
Meteor showers are pretty fickle — their best showings can vary by several hours from year to year.
That’s because a meteor shower occurs when Earth crosses the orbital path of a comet. Such a path is littered with tiny grains of rock and dust from the comet itself. As Earth flies through this trail of dust, the particles slam into our atmosphere and burn up, forming the bright streaks of light known as meteors.
But the dust isn’t distributed evenly. It forms clumps of different sizes. Over the years, meteor watchers have plotted many of the clumps, but there’s still some uncertainty. So it’s tough to be certain about just what hour is the best, and just how many meteors you’ll see.
This year’s Orionid’s are expected to be at their best tomorrow morning. The best view comes after the Moon drops from view, after midnight. At the peak, you might see a dozen or so meteors per hour. But to be sure, you’ll have to head outside under a dark sky, and find out for yourself.
In case you don’t know, the particular comet whose debris we are passing through at this time of year that produces the Orionids is Halley, one of the most famous of all comets.
Enjoy!
-cvj
