There’s a meteor shower happening in Charlotte this weekend. Here’s how to watch it
If you find yourself up late this weekend, you might be able to catch a dazzling shooting star display in Charlotte.
The Orionids meteor shower will peak during the mornings of Oct. 21 and 22, after midnight and just before dawn, according to EarthSky.org.
The shower could produce up to 20 meteors per hour, leave “persistent trains” and produce “bright fireballs,” EarthSky.org says.
Meteor showers often occur when Earth passes through debris left behind by a comet or asteroid, which is why they generally appear around the same time each year.
Here’s where the Orionid meteor shower comes from, how to watch in Charlotte and when the next meteor showers will happen.
Where do the Orionid meteors come from?
Orionid meteors come from Halley’s Comet, which orbits the sun every 76 years, according to EarthSky.org.
The meteors break off from the comet’s nucleus, and they appear in late October each year.
Halley’s Comet was last seen in 1986, and will return in 2061.
How to watch the meteor shower in Charlotte
Bill Cooke, the lead for the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama offered the following tips for watching meteor showers:
Get away from bright lights.
Give your eyes 30-45 minutes to adjust to the night sky.
Avoid looking at your phone, since the bright screen can hinder efforts to adjust your night vision.
Lie flat on your back so you can take in as much of the sky as you can.
Locate the radiant or the point in the sky where the meteors originate.
Other meteor showers scheduled to pass through Charlotte
Here are some other meteor showers scheduled for this year:
Southern Taurids: Nov. 5-6
Northern Taurids: Nov. 11-12
Leonids: Nov. 17-18
Geminids: Dec. 13-14
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 1:29 PM.
