Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 6:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:06. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:44 this evening.

Halley’s Comet is back! (Pronounced Hall-ee’s) Well sorta. In the form of the Orionid meteor shower. Bits of Halley’s Comet from previous passes by the Earth’s orbit make their twice-yearly show in our skies as these bits collide with the Earth’s atmosphere. Halley’s orbit passes close to the Earth’s orbit at points where the Earth is around May 6th and again near October 21st. Light dust and ionized gas get blown back into the tail of the comet. Heavier particles will roughly following the comet’s orbit. The radiant, a spot above the constellation Orion and below Gemini from which they will seem to come will rise around 11 pm. So view them any time after that as their numbers will increase until morning twilight begins.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Orionid meteor shower radiant at 5 a.m. October 21st. The radiant rises at 11 p.m., so the meteors will be visible from then into morning twilight. Despite the location of the radiant, the meteors will be seen all over the sky. However true Orionids can be traced back to the radiant point. Created using Stellarium.

We get two meteor showers from Halley’s Comet. The Orionids, when Halley’s meteoroids are approaching the inner solar system, and the Eta Aquariids when they’re leaving. Created using my LookingUp program.