A spectacular meteroid shower awaits you on Sunday 21st October.Go outside on Sunday morning, 21 October, around 1 AM, and start looking east (no telescope required). Every 10 minutes or so you’ll see a meteor streak. It is not an intense shower, about 20 to 30 meteors per hour. The meteors can be seen anywhere in the sky, but they appear to stream out of a point, called ‘the radiant,’ in the constellation Orion.
Don’t stare at that spot, meteors near the radiant seem short and stubby, a result of foreshortening. Instead, look toward any dark region of the sky about 90 degrees away. You’ll see just as many Orionids there, but they will seem longer and more dramatic.
Although the Orionids are not so spectacular as the Perseids, which peak around 12 August, they are consistent. The Orionids are related to the eta Aquarids, a southern hemisphere meteor shower in May. Both spring from Halley’s Comet. Earth comes close to the orbit of Halley’s Comet twice a year, once in May and again in October and although the comet itself is rarely nearby, Halley’s dusty debris constantly moves through the inner Solar System and causes two regular meteor showers. Orionid meteoroids are very fast. They strike Earth’s atmosphere travelling 66 km/s.
source:Sciencecentric
Read more...
