When it reaches its peak later this month, a shower of unusually swift meteors will be observable streaking through dark and moonless skies—ideal lighting conditions for meteor spotting.
The Orionids, a meteor shower named after the constellation Orion where they seem to come from but don’t, will have no moonlight to contend with when they reach their thickest on Oct. 21. The new moon occurs the very same day, offering stargazers optimal darkness.
It may be possible to spot the Orionids as early as Sept. 26, albeit in lesser numbers. They’ll die out entirely by Nov. 22.
Meteor showers appear faithfully around the same time each year. That’s because they occupy a spot in space where Earth plows through annually along its orbit round the sun. They flare up due to friction when they enter our atmosphere….