Orionid Meteor Shower Lights Up Atlanta’s Sky This Weekend
Tellus Science Museum
There’s some free, late-night entertainment available this weekend thanks to Mother Nature.
It’s the Orionid meteor shower, and you’ll be able to see it in the eastern sky starting around 11:00 p.m. Saturday. The best viewing will start an hour later: Sunday between midnight and dawn.
According to David Dundee, Astronomy Program Manager at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, meteor showers are made of dust and ice that fall from comets.
Dundee calls comets the litterbugs of the solar system. In this case, the “litter” comes from Halley’s Comet.
“What’s going on is, as the earth goes around the sun, it runs into the same spot about this time of the year every year, and it’s the same stream of debris that intersects our orbit,” said Dundee.
Dundee says you don’t need special equipment to view the shower, but you should try finding a viewing spot with as little street lighting as possible.
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