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Meteor shower Saturday night and Sunday morning!
Catch weekend Orionid meteor shower By Michael Clancy The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:15 PM Earth will move through debris from Halley’s Comet this weekend, resulting in a meteor shower that will peak Saturday night and Sunday morning. The 2012 Orionid meteor shower, so called because most of the shooting stars appear to originate in the Orion constellation, will take place at a time of the new moon, promising good views. Orion rises in the east in Phoenix after 10 p.m. “In addition to Orionids, you’ll see brilliant Venus, red Mars, the dog star Sirius and bright winter constellations such as Orion, Gemini and Taurus. Even if you don’t spy a meteor, the rest of the sky is dynamite,” a NASA press release said. The space agency has scheduled an online chat for Saturday night, starting at 9p.m. locally. You can follow the chat at www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/orionids2012.html . A local astronomy group has scheduled a viewing party in Carefree. Terri Finch of the Phoenix Astronomical Society, a group of amateur stargazers, says people will be able to see the brighter meteors, but recommends attending the society’s get-together, which will feature telescopes. RSVP on the organization’s website, pasaz.org. Click on the Oct.20 event. Orionids appear every autumn, with about 20 or so meteors per hour. NASA said the past few years have been more active, with about 60 per hour. The meteors are actually dust and ice particles from Halley’s Comet colliding with Earth’s atmosphere and burning out. Orionids move very fast, at 147,300 mph, NASA said, and they burn out quickly. The meteor shower began on Monday, although the peak is not until Sunday morning. NASA officials said the meteors should be visible after 11 p.m. in areas with a clear, dark sky. The best time to look is before sunrise Sunday, when Earth encounters the denseest part of Halley’s debris stream. Observing is easy: Wake up a few hours before dawn, go outside and look to the eastern sky. No telescope is needed. |