The Orionids, the meteor shower of the autumn, will reach their peak on Tuesday and Wednesday night, October 20-21 2020 in the northern hemisphere, including Greece. The best time to watch the “shooting stars” is on the Easter night sky, short after midnight and before the down.
The Orionids are active every year from early October to early November, usually peaking around October 20-21. At the meteor shower’s peak, up to 20 “shooting stars” are visible per hour, the enter the Earth atmosphere and burned.
The “shooting stars” are quick moving with a speed of 67 km per second.
The Orionid meteor shower is the second meteor shower created by debris in the tail of Halley’s Comet, which is also responsible for the Eta Aquariids seen in May.
The Orionids are named after Orion, because the meteors seem to emerge or radiate from the same part in the sky as the constellation. Usually up to 20 meteors per hour enter and burn in the earth’s atmosphere.
If you miss this week’s meteor shower, you can still catch the Leonids in November and the Geminids in December, which are associated with the Tempel-Tuttle comet and the Phaethon asteroid, respectively.
