Right: An Orionid meteor photographed on Oct. 21, 2008, by amateur astronomer Rich Swanson of Sierra Vista, Arizona.
I’m watching! Historically, the only meteor showers I’ve ever watched are the Perseids, around August 12, but every time, I miss them. This year, I woke up at 2AM that day, and looked up at the sky. Nothing but light pollution from Seattle, and the sky was cloudy. BOO.
According to NASA (article here), the Orionid meteor showers this year “could be a very good show.” Year after year, I miss these showers, which come from Halley’s comet’s debris, but thanks to Twitter, I’m up to date.
The best time to see the meteor shower is before sunrise on Wednesday, October 21st. Lucky for me, I wake up before sunrise every day Monday – Friday. The ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) is 60, which means on average one can expect to see sixty meteors shooting through the sky per hour. That’s about one per minute, but hopefully, the skies are clear and the meteors are bright.
If you’re going to watch them, wake up around 5AM or 5:30, and look south-east towards Orion. You can’t miss it.
UPDATE: Nope. It was cloudy today :(. Couldn’t see a darn thing. I’ll see if I can catch any meteors tomorrow (October 22nd, also the day when Windows 7 is released!)
I would so love to see this… But being close to NYC has way too much light pollution. I miss the country sometimes