Oct 20 - 2019's Orionid Meteor Shower

October 20 2019's Orionid Meteor Shower by:

View larger. | Here is the Orionid meteor stream (dotted line) striking Earth Sunday night. Guy Ottewell - who made this chart - lives in England, and he's showing you Europe's perspective tonight. The shower's peak is likely Tuesday morning although Monday and Wednesday mornings are possible, too. The actual stream of particles in space - the meteor stream, debris left behind by Halley's Comet - is millions of miles wide. People on all parts of Earth have a more or less equal chance of catching an Orionid meteor streaking across a dark night sky. Guy wrote of this image: "Earth is seen from ecliptic north (the north pole of its orbit).  The broad flat arrow shows its flight along its orbit in one minute, and the arrow on its equator shows its rotation in 3 hours." Read more.

Next few nights … Orionid meteors late night until dawn Try watching Monday through Wednesday mornings. In 2019, the moon will be at or just past its last quarter phase at the shower's peak. It'll be up before dawn, interfering with the best time of night for meteor-watching. The moon is waning, so with each passing morning, there's less moonlight. Read more. More from Guy Ottewell … Orionids for 2019 More charts and insights about this week's Orionid meteor shower from astronomer Guy Ottewell. Click here for more. Zoom in on the Ghost Nebula Like any respectable ghost, IC 63 - aka the Ghost Nebula - is slowly melting away. In this case, it’s dissipating due to intense radiation from a nearby unpredictably variable star, Gamma Cassiopeiae. Read more and zoom in.

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Orionids for 2019 View larger. | Here is the scene Sunday and Monday evenings - from Northern Hemisphere locations - as the Orionid meteors’ radiant rises into view. Notice the moon will be ascending in the sky at the same time. From the Southern Hemisphere, where this shower is also visible, the view is much the same, but the ecliptic - or path of the sun, moon and planets - and the celestial equator would be oriented differently with respect to the horizon. Chart by Guy Ottewell. Read more.

Planets and Antares, last night, from Zimbabwe View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe, caught this glorious view last night. He wrote: "Clear sky with good visibility at higher elevations enabled a good Southern Hemisphere view to be obtained of (from bottom to top) Venus, Mercury, Antares (orange) and Jupiter at twilight." Thank you, Peter! The Southern Hemisphere - where the ecliptic makes a steep angle with the evening horizon this month - has a much better view of Venus and Mercury than we do in the north. Read more about finding Venus and Mercury. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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