Sure, the comet won’t return until 2062 or so, but as it travels it leaves bits of itself along the way. These bits (actually very small dust particles), continue to orbit the sun in Halley’s path in a wide trail of dust.
Well, we’re about to plow into that dust trail, which will give us the eta Aquarid meteor shower. The shower will peak tomorrow (Saturday). The southern hemisphere will get the best action, with 60 or so meteors per hour. Here in the north we’ll get about 10 per hour.
The best time to view this shower, like all showers, is after midnight. Specifically, tonight after midnight.
Why after midnight? It’s like this - when you drive down the highway in warm weather, you will hit a few bugs. You’ll notice that the bugs splats are all on the front window, not the back.
In a way, meteors are like those bugs, and the Earth is the car. After midnight, the part of the Earth you’re standing on will be on the “front” edge of the planet. So we will be running into those little bits of dust, and instead of splats, we’ll see some pretty nice meteor trails.
So dress warm and stay up late and you’ll see at least part of Halley’s comet tonight.
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1 Orionid Meteor Shower This Weekend · LordKingSquirrel.com // Oct 19, 2006 at 11:43 am
[...] Remember, after midnight is the best time to watch a meteor shower (see this post for an explaination as to why that is). The Moon won’t be a problem as it looks like it will be close to a new moon Friday night, so it will be up close to dawn and will be just a small sliver. [...]
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