BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Remnants of Halley's Comet - they're here

The Orionid meteor shower is already moderately active. Late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (October 20/21) should see the peak of the shower. Here's a sky chart showing the radiant.

Meteor showers occur around the same times each year. They're caused when Earth, as it orbits, travels through the debris stream left by a comet. You can find out more about meteor showers here.

If you missed seeing the remnants of Halley's Comet at its peak last night, there should still be some activity until about November 7th. So if you have a nice night, it's still worth going out to have a look for "shooting stars".

A splendid composite photo of the 2011 Orionids taken by Brad Goldpaint near Mount Shasta, California. (That's quite a sky.)

A beautiful picture of an Orionid meteor photographed by John Ashley caught over the Makoshika State Park in Montana.

NASA's network of all-sky cameras watches US skies for fireballs, i.e., particularly bright meteors. The network reported 54 for last night, 23 of which were Orionids.

If you're wondering what a fireball might look like, here's a shot of an Orionid fireball taken on the morning of October 22, 2015 by Barry Simmons at Lake Martin, Alabama. Simmons says:
BTW the meteor's green color is due to the color balance of the camera.

The Orionids are definitely dropping off rapidly in number. NASA's fireball network reported only 10 Orionid fireballs for last night.

Very cool!

That rock formation in Montana looks like a sleeping camel. Lovely picture.