CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Oct 21 2016 – The sky will put on a heck of a show tonight.
The annual Orionid meteor shower peaks Friday night into Saturday morning. If you have an unclouded view of the night sky, preferably away from city lights, you’ll see beautiful streaks of light zipping overhead.
Orionids are one one of a few major, yearly meteor showers. The Orionids — so named because the meteors appear to radiate out from near the Orion constellation — happen from October to November. This year, the showtime is October 4 through November 14. But Friday night is prime time; you could see about 20 meteors per hour — more than at any other point during the Orionid window.
Meteors are tiny space debris burning up as they hit Earth’s atmosphere. In the case of the Orionids, the debris are particles left behind by Halley’s Comet, which visited our cosmic neighborhood in 1986. When the comet flies close to the sun every 75 years or so, the sun burns off some of its surface, so it leaves behind dust and rock.
