Orionid meteors

They appear to radiate from a point not far from the great reddish star Betelgeuse. Here is the radiant rising into view this evening.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations.

It’s not one of the major annual showers in abundance – you might notice only half a dozen or so per hour – but is interesting in that it consists of particles shed from Halley’s Comet. The Orionids are this stream coming in across the October part of Earth’s orbit; the Eta Aquarids are this stream crossing out over the May part.  See the space diagram in our page about “Halley meteors.”

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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.

ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.

One way: right-click, and choose ”View image” or ”Open image in new tab”, then enlarge. Or choose ”Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.

Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it.  If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or, if you click ‘Refresh’ or press function key 5, you’ll see the latest version.