Orionids â€“ Crumbs of Halley's Comet

The most famous comet is Halley's Comet. English astronomer Edmond Halley didn't discover it, but did discover that it came visiting every 75-76 years. If you can't wait until 2062 for the next visit, you can see the Orionid meteor shower which is created by debris from Halley's Comet.

Orionids â€“ Crumbs of Halley's Comet

John Ashley took this photo in Montana during the 2015 Orionids. Magnificent.

Wow, beautiful picture!

Astrophotographer Daniel McVey took this photo of an Orionid meteor in Summit County, Colorado on Oct. 21, 2012. The Orionids of 2016 peaked Oct. 20-21.

The Orionid meteor shower isn't the only one created by debris from Halley's Comet. The May Eta Aquarids are also crumbs of this famous comet. Here is a composite image taken at Mt Bromo in Indonesia during the Eta Aquarid peak.

But astrophotographer Justin Ng also caught an Eta Aquarid fireball on video. It looks like a lightning flash on the lefthand side of the screen - and is repeated in slow motion.

Credit and copyright: Justin Ng.

Deborah Byrd of EarthSky reminds us that the Orionid meteor shower is building to a peak expected in the early hours of October 21. The shower goes on for a few weeks after that, so worth a look the next night or so if you're clouded out tonight.

Quote:

The Orionids arenâ€™t the yearâ€™s strongest shower, and theyâ€™re not particularly known for storming (producing unexpected, very rich displays). But â€“ from a dark location, in a year when the moon is out of the way at the peak (as is the case in 2017) â€“ you might reliably see 10 to 20 meteors per hour at the peak.

The Orionids are known to be fast and on the faint side, but can sometimes surprise you with an exceptionally bright meteor that might break up into fragments.

As is usual for most (but not all) meteor showers, the best time to watch the Orionids is in the dark hours before dawn.

EarthSky posted some of the Orionid photos that people sent in. This is one of my favorites, an Orionid meteor in the predawn sky on October 21st.

Photo credit: Neeti Kumthekar

Orionid Meteors from Orion

Pictured here, more than a dozen meteors caught in successively added exposures over Wulan Hada volcano in Inner Mongolia. It shows multiple meteor streaks that can all be connected to a single small region on the sky called the radiant, here visible just above and to the left of the belt of Orion, The Orionid meteors started as sand sized bits expelled from Comet Halley during one of its trips to the inner Solar System.

Image Credit & Copyright: Lu Shupei