dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (10/19/84)
Saturday morning is the peak of a shower of meteors which came originally from Halley's Comet. More on the Orionids -- right after this. October 19 The Orionid Meteor Shower Those anxious to see traces of Halley's Comet should look in a dark sky in the hours before dawn Saturday morning. Earth is now intersecting the orbit of Comet Halley, as it does every year at this time. Bits of debris spread around in the comet's orbit are now whizzing down through our atmosphere, vaporizing as they fall. The streaks of light they leave in the night sky are called meteors -- and because these meteors radiate from a point near the club of Orion the Hunter, the meteor shower is called the Orionids. The Orionids have good years and bad years. So it's hard to predict how many meteors you might see Saturday morning -- but expect somewhere between 10 and 70 meteors per hour. You don't need any special equipment to watch a meteor shower, but you do need a dark sky and a place to lie down and look up. It's best to drive out of the city for 20 or so miles -- to an open area far from city lights. The Orionid meteor shower is known for consisting of meteors in many different colors. Some are bright but most are faint -- one in every five leave a ghostly vapor trail behind when the meteor disappears. Again, that's the Orionid meteor shower -- which comes from bits of debris moving in the orbit of Comet Halley -- due to peak before dawn on Saturday. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin