The Orionid meteor shower peaks Thursday night. Here's how to watch colorful streaks and fireballs lighting up the sky.
- The Orionids meteor shower peaks late Thursday night and into early Friday morning.
- Expect about 15 shooting stars per hour to leave bright trails and explode in colorful fireballs.
The Orionid meteor shower reaches its most active overnight on Thursday, peaking after midnight with about 15 shooting stars per hour.
Colorful streaks and bursting fireballs make this one of the year's most beautiful meteor showers, according to NASA. The meteors scream through Earth's atmosphere at 148,000 miles per hour — about 41 miles each second — a speed which causes the meteors to burn up and leave behind glowing trails that can linger for several seconds, if not minutes. Some become fireballs that explode with light and color.
The Orionids are visible in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, from midnight to dawn. If your local weather is clear, you could be in for a meteoric spectacle.
We're traveling through the dust of Halley's Comet
Earth passes through Halley's wake twice a year, once starting in May and then again in October. Each pass lasts a month or so, which is why the resulting meteor showers — the Eta Aquariids in the spring, and Orionids in the fall — last for weeks.
Each shower's peak, though, occurs when our planet moves through the densest part of Halley's debris trail.
The American Meteor Society predicts the Orionids will last through November 22, so if you miss the peak on Thursday and Friday there's still time to spot them.
Leave the binoculars at home, and don't stare at Orion
To see the most Orionid meteors, find a dark spot as far from light sources as possible. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, lie on the ground or in a deck chair with your feet facing southeast. In the Southern Hemisphere, point your feet northeast. Give yourself as broad a view of the sky as possible — meteors can appear anywhere.
The Orionids are easily visible with the naked eye, but it's best to let your eyes adjust to the darkness for 30 minutes so you can spot more shooting stars. Avoid looking at the moon or your phone as well, since bright light may reset your eye-adjustment clock and prevent you from seeing faint meteors.
You can see the shower starting after midnight local time, and it will continue until dawn.
NASA recommends against using telescopes or binoculars to view a meteor shower, since those instruments show only a limited portion of the sky at a time. Casting a wide view will help you spot more streaks of Halley's debris.
The Orionids shower gets its name from the Orion constellation, which is where the meteors seem to originate in the sky — they appear north of Betelgeuse, the constellation's brightest star. Orion is identifiable by the trio of stars forming a hunter's belt. But NASA suggests not staring directly at Orion, since it's so bright that it will make meteors appear dimmer.
If you don't spot any meteors during this year's shower, mark your calendar for mid-November, when the Northern Taurids shower is expected to peak.