Shooting Stars

I'm not an astronomer, not even an amateur one. But every now and then, even someone like me can read a blurb in the news section online about a meteor shower and manage to catch sight of a rare meteor display.

A junior version of the famous Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to reach its maximum before sunrise on Sunday morning, Oct. 21. This meteor display is known as the Orionids because the meteors seem to fan out from a region to the north of Orion's second brightest star, ruddy Betelgeuse.

After peaking Sunday, activity will begin to slowly descend, dropping back to around five per hour around Oct. 26.

I've been outside several times this morning and managed to catch a glimpse of 7 meteors streaking across the sky. I'm both awed and a little disappointed. While catching a glimpse of even one shooting star amazes me, I was hoping to see more of a show. The first time I went outside, admittedly a little earlier than the predicted peak time, I caught glimpse of only one. That one was the second brightest and longest track of the seven I've seen so far. The most impressive one I just saw a few minutes ago. It's still pre-sunrise here in northeast Louisiana and I will try again in a few minutes. When I went out at around 5:30 local time, I witnessed 5 of them within the space of a few moments, then the action stopped as quickly as it began. I'm certain there were those I missed in one section of the sky as my attention was focused on another area.

Ginger thinks I am crazy, running in and out at this time of day and wonders why we're not still sleeping. She may be right. But I'll answer her thoughts later -- after I go out to check the skies again!