If you look up at the sky on Sunday night into Monday morning, you might get a glimpse of some shooting stars.
The Orionid meteor shower started lighting up the skies Oct. 2 and will keep going through Nov. 7. Peak viewing, which started Saturday night into Sunday morning, will continue Sunday night into Monday morning, Oct. 22. So if you missed it last night, you still have another chance to get in some great meteor shower viewing.
The shower will be easiest to see between 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. ET because Orion—the constellation after which the Orionid is named due to its direction of origin—is most visible at 2 a.m. in October, according to Space.com. But, as Bill Cooke, a NASA meteor expert told the site, “The moon is going to mess with you.”
The best time to take a look for the meteors is during the overnight hours when the moon isn’t overshadowing the night sky with its brightness. You can verify the best viewing hours in your area based on the moon’s setting schedule at timeanddate.com. The shower will produce as many as 15 to 20 meteors per hour, CNN reported.
The Orionid meteor shower appears in October each year, as the Earth travels through the debris left by Halley’s Comet, according to NASA. The meteors are fast, traveling at 148,000 mph and can leave “glowing trains.” NASA adds that “Fast meteors can also sometimes become fireballs: Look for prolonged explosions of light when viewing the Orionid meteor shower.”
