The Orionid meteor shower peaks over the next couple nights (October 20/21). The Orionids are composed of debris from Halley's comet, which last visited the inner solar system in 1986 and will next visit in 2061.
takyon: NASA says:
"The Orionids will probably show weaker activity than usual this year," says Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environments Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Bits of comet dust hitting the atmosphere will probably give us about a dozen meteors per hour." The best time to look for Orionid meteors is just before sunrise this Thursday, Oct. 22, when Earth encounters the densest part of Halley's debris stream.
Observing is simple: set the alarm a few hours before dawn, go outside and look up in the direction of the constellation Orion. No telescope is necessary to see Orionids shooting across the sky. While the meteor count may be lower this year, viewing conditions are favorable, as the gibbous moon will set by 2 a.m. EDT time, permitting good viewing just before dawn when rates will be at their highest.
A live stream of the night sky from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will be available via Ustream beginning October 21, at 10 p.m. EDT. [...] The next meteor shower on deck is the Leonids, with the peak expected from midnight until dawn on Nov. 18.
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Wednesday October 21 2015, @07:58AM
I live in a big city and when I visit my relatives in the mountains the first thing I usually see when I step out of the train station is the huge amount of stars that are visible there. I remember when I was a knee-high kid, me and my friend once stared at the night sky trying to envision infinity and after a few minutes we literally were rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday October 21 2015, @11:40AM
Was your 'friends' name Mary Jane perhaps? :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---