If you are looking for a spectacular show this weekend, look up to find the Orionid meteor shower shining bright through Saturday and Sunday night. <\/p>\n
The shower is expected to peak at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, but visible meteors are expected to streak across the sky all weekend long at a rate of 10 to 20 per hour, according to EarthSky, and can be seen from all parts of the world during the night. <\/p>\n
The best time to spot a meteor will be in the early hours of the morning, when the radiant, or the point where the meteors appear to originate from \u2014 in this case constellation Orion \u2014 is at its highest at around 2 a.m. in any time zone, but Dr. Ashley King, a planetary science researcher with the Natural History Museum in London, said that meteors will start appearing as soon as it gets dark. <\/p>\n
This weekend, the moon will be in its first quarter phase and will set near midnight, according to the American Meteor Society. That means its luminosity will slightly interfere with meteor visibility, King said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll want to wait for the moon to set,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if you\u2019re in a city, you should be able to see a few meteors \u2014 it\u2019s really just a case of looking at the sky and being patient.\u201d <\/p>\n
To have the best chance of spotting a meteor, King suggests going outside for at least 10 to 20 minutes before stargazing to let your eyes adjust to the low light. If possible, it is ideal to get away from light pollution and find a spot with a clear view of the dark sky, King said. <\/p>\n
The Orionid meteors come from one of the most famous comets, Halley, which is currently near the middle of its 76-year orbit around the sun. While the comet won\u2019t make its appearance in Earth\u2019s night sky until 2061, it leaves a trail of debris behind that our planet passes through every year, resulting in the Orionids. <\/p>\n
In early May, Earth passes through a different section of Halley\u2019s orbit trail, resulting in the meteor shower known as the Eta Aquariids. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing are little comet dust grains that are traveling really quickly,\u201d King said. \u201cWhen they enter the atmosphere, they get heated up and vaporize, and you get that bright streak \u2014 and that\u2019s what we call a meteor.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Orionids tend to be bright and fast-moving, 148,000 miles per hour (238,183 kilometers per hour), according to NASA. Because of this high speed, the Orionids often make long trails in the sky \u2014 visual evidence of the dust being released by the meteors as they are heated up, King said. <\/p>\n
Occasionally, meteor showers can have an unexpected spike in their meteor rates. From 2006 to 2009, the Orionids saw anywhere between 50 to 75 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society. Normal rates are expected this year, but there is always the possibility of a surprise, the organization notes on its website. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are they spectacular \u2014 it\u2019s exciting to see the bright streaks across the sky, and it\u2019s not something you see every day \u2014 but this is dust grain that formed just over 4.6 billion years ago,\u201d King said. \u201cThis is dust from the birth of the solar system.\u201d <\/p>\n
After the Orionids peak, the hourly rate of visible meteors will begin to slow down until the shower ends on November 22. If you miss the peak this weekend, there are five other meteor showers left to catch this year: <\/p>\n
\u25cf Southern Taurids: November 5-6 <\/p>\n
\u25cf Northern Taurids: November 11-12 <\/p>\n
\u25cf Leonids: November 17-18 <\/p>\n
\u25cf Geminids: December 13-14 <\/p>\n
\u25cf Ursids: December 21-22 <\/p>\n
There are three full moons remaining in 2023, according to the Farmers\u2019 Almanac: <\/p>\n
\u25cf October 28: Hunter\u2019s moon <\/p>\n
\u25cf November 27: Beaver moon <\/p>\n
\u25cf December 26: Cold moon <\/p>\n
On October 14, people across North, Central and South America were able to encounter\u00a0an annular solar eclipse. During the event, the moon passed between the sun and Earth creating a \u201cring of fire\u201d in the sky. It was the last solar eclipse\u00a0event until 2024. <\/p>\n
A partial lunar eclipse, however, will take place on October 28 and will be viewable in Europe, Asia, Australia, parts of North America and much of South Africa. This eclipse occurs when part of the moon passes into Earth\u2019s shadow, allowing the shadow to be visible on the moon for a short period of time. <\/p>\n\n
If you are looking for a spectacular show this weekend, look up to find the Orionid meteor shower shining bright through Saturday and Sunday night. The shower is expected to peak at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, but visible meteors are expected to streak across the sky all weekend long at a rate of 10 to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}