Stargazers will be able to catch the annual Orionid meteor shower on Friday night during its second night of a two-day peak but unfavourable conditions could make it difficult to see.
According to NASA, the best time to catch a glimpse of the meteor shower is a few hours before dawn when the sky is the darkest. The meteors can be seen without a telescope but, because they are travelling so fast, can be missed with the blink of an eye.
The meteors are small pieces of Comet 1P, or Halley’s Comet, which enters the inner solar system once every 75-76 years and sheds a layer of rock and ice. Once a year, the Earth hits the trail of debris left behind by the comet resulting in the meteor shower.
According to a NASA Facebook post, the Orionid meteor shower has had variable rates of meteors per hour throughout the years, ranging anywhere between 15 to 90 meteors. Stargazers can expect to see around 20 meteors per hour during this year’s meteor shower.
Viewing conditions are considered unfavourable due to the waning moon located close to the radiant, or origin of the meteor shower. The slim crescent in the sky will wash out the fainter meteors but some of the brighter meteors can still be seen.
NASA suggests giving your eyes about 45 minutes to adjust to the dark in order to fully be able to see the meteor shower. NASA recommends not using binoculars because it will reduce the amount of sky that is visible at one time, lowering the odds of seeing a meteor.
For those who wish to see the meteor shower but have too much light pollution, the meteors can be seen at NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network; a collection of 15 cameras across the United States that observe meteors year-round that are brighter than Venus.
According to NASA, cameras have seen 47 bright Orionids so far, the dimmest meteors in the shower about as bright as Mars while the brightest give off the same amount of light as a crescent moon.
The Orionid Meteor shower peak ends Oct. 22 but the meteor shower is active until Nov. 14.
