Orionid Meteor Shower Tonight Reaches it Peak – Where to Look and When to Watch

As we reported in an article on Thursday, the skygazers can watch the Orionid meteor shower tonight as it reaches its peak intensity. The meteor shower, which is comprised of remanents of the tail of Halley’s Comet, put on a good show last night as well, but tonight (Saturday) is expected to be well worth watching.

Frequency during the meteor shower tonight is expected to be one ‘shooting star’every 2 minutes or so on average. Best viewing in the United States will be from about 11PM to 4AM, local time.

To watch the orionid meteor shower, skygazers should look up facing the southeast looking in the constellation Orion. Orion is one of the most easily recognized constellations because of the 3 bright start which make up the belt of the constellation.

Just where did the oriond meteor shower come from? The last time Halley’s comet passed by the earth was in 1986. It was during its transition near our sun that some of the debis which will be seen broke loose from the comet. As the Earth orbits the sun, we occasionally fly through the trail left by Halley.

While Halley’s Comet may only make a fly-by of the earth every 76 years, the debris left behind, in our solar system, from each pass of Halley, creates an annual meteor shower known as the Orionid meteor shower.

Although not as spectacular as the more well known Perseid meteor shower in August, the Orionid shower does give spectators the chance to see chunks of ice from comet Halley burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.