Halley's Comet - GEORGE BISHOP

Orionid Meteor Shower This Weekend, Oct 21 – 23

January 12, 2023October 21, 2022

Don’t be alarmed if you see balls of fire in the sky this weekend.

“The Orionid meteor shower is active from Sept. 26 to Nov. 22, with a peak during the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 21. NASA says this shower is considered “one of the most beautiful meteor showers of the year,” known for bright, fast shooting stars that leave long trails glowing in their wake.”

More here and below. Enjoy.

Stunning meteor shower from Halley’s Comet to light up night skies

The Orionid meteor shower is active from Sept. 26 to Nov. 22, with a peak during the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 21. NASA says this shower is considered “one of the most beautiful meteor showers of the year,” known for bright, fast shooting stars that leave long trails glowing in their wake.

Fast meteors like the Orionids can sometimes even leave “fireballs,” or longer explosions of light.

Read on to learn about the shower and how to watch it.

What are the Orionids?

This meteor shower is caused by space debris from what could be the best-known comet ever: Halley’s Comet, which takes 76 years to orbit the Sun just once. It hasn’t been seen by casual Earth stargazers since 1986. NASA says it’ll return in 2061, if you want to add that to your calendar.

The comet is named for English astronomer Edmond Halley, who correctly predicted its return.

Halley’s Comet sheds streams of ice and dust every time it circles back through the inner solar system, leading to two different yearly meteor showers.

“The Eta Aquarids are the outbound particles of Halley’s comet and the Orionids are the inbound,” American Meteor Society editor Robert Lunsford said, adding that both showers have a nearly two-month active period. “Halley’s Comet has been through the inner solar system so many times, a lot of the particles have spread out.”

Estimates for how many meteors you could see per hour vary, with NASA predicting 15 and AMS estimating 10 to 20. Due to the long active period for the Orionids, those peak rates are expected to last longer than for other showers.

“That’s what’s different about this long period shower — it has a plateau-like maximum,” Lunsford said. “So if you miss the night of maximum activity, the night after and even a couple of nights after that is well worth watching.”

The Orionids meteor shower has a history of surprising its viewers. AMS says in 2006 to 2009, the shower’s peak rates rivaled that of the stunning Perseids, which can average 50 to 75 meteors per hour.

How to watch the meteor shower this week

The Orionids will peak in the early morning hours between Thursday and Friday.

NASA recommends watching in the hours between midnight and dawn, well away from city lights if possible. A lawn chair or sleeping bag will help you stay cozy as your eyes adapt to the darkness — this takes about 30 minutes. As experienced stargazers know, some patience will come in handy.

“Watch for at least an hour… Because there’s peaks and valleys of activity, a in all meteor showers,” Lunsford said. “You could be out there at the wrong time and see nothing. And then during the next five or 10 minute period, you’ll see all kinds of activity.”

Favorite Astronomy Poems No. 1: “Halley’s Comet,” by Stanley Kunitz

January 12, 2023September 15, 2013

I kept this poem taped to the wall above my desk while I was writing “The Night of the Comet.”

HALLEY’S COMET
by Stanley Kunitz
(1905-2006)

Miss Murphy in first grade 
wrote its name in chalk 
across the board and told us 
it was roaring down the stormtracks 
of the Milky Way at frightful speed 
and if it wandered off its course
 and smashed into the earth 
there’d be no school tomorrow. 
A red-bearded preacher from the hills 
with a wild look in his eyes 
stood in the public square 
at the playground’s edge 
proclaiming he was sent by God 
to save every one of us, 
even the little children. 
“Repent, ye sinners!” he shouted, 
waving his hand-lettered sign. 
At supper I felt sad to think 
that it was probably 
the last meal I’d share 
with my mother and my sisters; 
but I felt excited too 
and scarcely touched my plate. 
So mother scolded me 
and sent me early to my room. 
The whole family’s asleep 
except for me. They never heard me steal 
into the stairwell hall and climb 
the ladder to the fresh night air. 
Look for me, Father, on the roof 
of the red brick building 
at the foot of Green Street–
that’s where we live, you know, on the top floor. 
I’m the boy in the white flannel gown 
sprawled on this coarse gravel bed 
searching the starry sky, 
waiting for the world to end. 

Halley’s Comet

January 12, 2023July 25, 2013

No. 8 and last in our Comet a Week series, the most famous of them all: Halley’s Comet.

Halley’s is a 76-year-period comet, named after Sir Edmund Halley, who was the first to successfully calculate a comet’s orbit and predict its return. Since that 1759 apparition, astronomers have plotted Halley’s regular reappearances back to 240 BCE. Its most recent apparitions were in 1910 and 1986. The next one will be in 2061.

Halley’s 1910 appearance especially inflamed popular imagination. There were the usual comet panics and doomsday predictions; some astronomers warned that gases from its tail would poison life on Earth, and gas masks and anti-comet pills were sold.

The comet appeared in advertisements, songs, and on postcards. In larger cities, hotels hosted comet parties on their roofs.

And in case you’re curious, here’s a recording of “Halley’s Comet Rag”:

The Great Easter Comet of 1066

January 12, 2023June 12, 2013

This week’s featured comet: The Great Easter Comet of 1066.

The Great Easter Comet of 1066–also called “The Comet of the Conquest”–was actually Halley’s Comet, making one of its 76-year periodic appearances. And 1066, you’ll remember from history class, was the year of the Norman Conquest of England.

Legend says that the comet appeared at Easter time and shone for forty days, waxing and waning with the moon:

“Under its seven rays, that year, William the Conqueror felt inspired to fall upon England, while Harold, the Saxon, on the other hand, saw in the Comet a star of dread foreboding and of doom.”

The comet lit the Normans’ trip across the English Channel, and William pointed it out to his soldiers to stir their courage, saying it was a sign from heaven of their coming victory.

Sigebert of Brabant, a Belgian chronicler of the time, wrote of the comet: “Over the island of Britain was seen a star of a wonderful bigness, to the train of which hung a fiery sword not unlike a dragon’s tail; and out of the dragon’s mouth issued two vast rays, whereof one reached as far as France, and the other, divided into seven lesser rays, stretched away towards Ireland.”

After the Norman Conquest, the comet was immortalized in the Bayeux Tapestry, sewn by William’s wife, Queen Matilda, and her court. You can still see the tapestry in Bayeux, France. In one panel, King Harold of England is shown cowering on his throne while his people huddle together in fear, pointing at the comet. The Latin legend over the picture reads “Isti Mirant Stella”: They marvel at the star.

One result of the Norman Conquest (and of the comet, you could say) is that we now have many, many words of French origin in the English language, such as “conquest,” “origin,” and “language.”