The Orionid Meteor Shower Has Begun – Here’s What You Need to Know

The Orionid Meteor Shower Has Begun – Here’s What You Need to Know
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The Universe is once again inviting us all to a majestic celestial show: the Orionid meteor shower. It has already started on September 26, but there’s no use getting upset if you didn’t have the tickets prepared already. 

Thanks to EarthSky, we can get all the essential information we need about the Orionid meteor shower (Orionids, for short). We’re talking about the most prolific meteor shower that’s associated with Halley’s Comet, one that has an orbital period of 75 years and has its next perihelion in 2061, meaning the closest point to the sun.

The Orionids will reach their peak on October 21

The best part of the Orionids celestial spectacle is still yet to come. In three weeks, we’ll get to witness the peak of what the meteor shower has to offer if the sky in our area is clear enough. The best time to feast your eyes on the Orionid meteor shower is on both October 21 and 20, in the wee hours after midnight and before the sun rises.

YouTube video

You also shouldn’t be surprised at all if you’ll be lucky enough to spot some fireballs in the night sky as well during the dominance of the Orionids. Fireballs are practically still meteors, but ones that reach a certain brightness, becoming much more prevalent than a usual meteor. You can expect plenty of meteors from the Orionid meteor shower to be unusually bright, whether they actually qualify as fireballs or not!

Otherwise, the Orionids are still extremely fast meteors, as they’ll zip through our atmosphere at about 66km per hour. 

The Orionid meteor shower officially ends on November 22, but it’s certainly a great idea not to wait until the last day to observe it. Such an experience certainly becomes even more exciting if you grab a pair of binoculars to admire the celestial show.


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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