The Orionids, the most prolific meteor shower associated with Halley’s Comet, are about at their peak tonight.  If you can’t go out tonight, don’t worry.  The shower will still be impressive tomorrow night.  Well, should be impressive.  You know how it goes.

This gorgeous green and red Orionid is from Mila Zinkova, an awesome astrophotographer. All rights reserved.

Anyway, the Orionids are the second of two showers associated with Halley’s Comet, the first being the Eta Aquarids.  The Orionids radiant (the point they appear to come from) is in the constellation of Orion.  The bad news is we are waxing gibbous on the moon, and that puppy will be full tonight, and with Jupiter shining beside it, it’s hard to take your eyes from it.  Aldebaran should grab your attention, too, as it’s been super-luminous lately, and is commanding quite a bit of attention.  At least Aldebaran is going to make it easy for you to find the radiant.

When you see Aldebaran, you know you’re close to Orion.  Just scan down a line to the SouthEast a bit.  You should see Betelgeuse, and right off the point of Betelgeuse (to the left) is the radiant.

Halley’s Comet has been around for some 2200 years, so there should be a lot of “stuff” out there.  The Orionids have been averaging about 60 meteors per hour for the last three years.

A funny story about Aldebaran.  It really is something where I live, and Tom sent me out early one morning to look for the comet.  I came screaming back in and quickly emailed, “That’s not MARS is it??  That can’t be MARS!!”  He patiently explained to me that it was probably Aldebaran, but it took some convincing.  Okay, shut up. It was early.  I hadn’t had coffee yet.