Meteor shower created by Halley’s Comet peaks tonight

Space.com ^ | 10/20/12 | By Mike Wall

[Doogle]

A meteor shower spawned by history’s most famous comet will peak this weekend, and the show could be dazzling for observers with clear skies, experts say.

The Orionid meteor shower will reach its zenith overnight from Saturday to Sunday (Oct. 20-21) as Earth plows through debris shed by Halley’s Comet on its path around the sun. The most impressive display should come a few hours before dawn Sunday, when our planet hits the densest patch of Halley’s detritus.

"Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour," Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a statement.

[Doogle]

Ok all you geezers,gazers...look up tonight

[Doogle]

watch on line here:

http://www.space.com/18152-orionid-meteor-shower-peaks-tonight-watch-online.html

[Doogle]

"I'll be watching"

[Doogle]

ping

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thanks for the link!

[Chode]

solid overcast...

[TigersEye]

Sounds good. Thanks for posting.

[azsportsterman]

Yeah, I’m in southern Arizona, and we have so many stars blocking our view, it may be hard to see the shower; not to mention the temps at that time in the morning will probably be in the 50’s, and we’d need long sleeve shirts to be outside.... /s

[Chode]

it's 46 here right now... it'll be colder come morning

[azsportsterman]

Been there; I grew up in the northeast, lived in the midwest, have many great friends in both places. I can’t tolerate the cold, but understand those that wouldn’t live anywhere else. Enjoy, my FRiend.

[jmacusa]

In the 50’s? friend, here on the Jersey Shore(not the tv show) it’ll be around 38/40 degrees.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Live meteor echoes

[Bellflower]

Tonight before the sun set, but was in the far west, we watched what looked like comets on the horizon. One remained what looked like almost in one place for about 20 minutes or more and only disappeared as the horizon swallowed it up. It was a bright light almost like a star but it had a tail on it. Another light remained for a while, maybe 10 minutes and then simply disappeared. The third bright star like light had a longer tail and moved what appeared to be very slowly horizontal to the horizon until it too was swallowed by the rotation of the earth. I almost always carry a good pair of binoculars with me so was able to see them as bright lights with tails. They did not burn up as "falling stars" but rather seemed like individual comets themselves. We pulled into Menards parking lot in Janesville to watch them and an employee getting off from work watched them with us.

We did not know about Haily's comet so I decided to check FR to see if there was any news about this phenomenon, and this must be what the bright light with tails, that seemed almost stationary were.

[Bellflower]

Haily’s=Halley’s

[Bellflower]

Has anyone an explanation for this? It was as if we were watching Halley's comet itself, but there was an extra one. One had a long tail, one a very short one seen through good binoculars, and one star type light didn't have a noticeable tail and only lasted about 10 minutes. Is this a usual phenomenon from Halley's comet debris?

Tonight before the sun set, but was in the far west, we watched what looked like comets on the horizon. One remained what looked like almost in one place for about 20 minutes or more and only disappeared as the horizon swallowed it up. It was a bright light almost like a star but it had a tail on it. Another light remained for a while, maybe 10 minutes and then simply disappeared. The third bright star like light had a longer tail and moved what appeared to be very slowly horizontal to the horizon until it too was swallowed by the rotation of the earth. I almost always carry a good pair of binoculars with me so was able to see them as bright lights with tails. They did not burn up as "falling stars" but rather seemed like individual comets themselves. We pulled into Menards parking lot in Janesville to watch them and an employee getting off from work watched them with us.

We did not know about Halley's comet so I decided to check FR to see if there was any news about this phenomenon, and this must be what the bright light with tails, that seemed almost stationary were."

[a fool in paradise]

58 years later? Wow!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Doogle.

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[gleeaikin]

I was so sorry I couldn’t talk my guy into staying the night out at our cabin in WV. I remember vividly a few years before my husband passed from Alzheimers watching a major shower. It was in Nov. or Dec., don’t remember the name—Perseids maybe? It was cold, but we laid a plastic shower curtain on the ground, then a sleeping bag, pillows and blankets. Watched for about an hour, maybe two or three a minute at times. Good to keep memories like that.

Now it is really a dangerous time to be a scientist. In Italy 7 people including scientists have been sentenced to 6 years in prison for manslaughter for failure to predict/warn about a major earthquake that killed hundreds.

http://news.yahoo.com/italian-scientists-convicted-over-earthquake-warning-180222699.html

[blam]

"Now it is really a dangerous time to be a scientist. In Italy 7 people including scientists have been sentenced to 6 years in prison for manslaughter for failure to predict/warn about a major earthquake that killed hundreds."

Next time, they'll hang them. (This is outrageous)