Diary

Today, nature offers another chance to head out under the starry sky with a wish list and try to tick off at least a few items—the Orionid meteor shower is reaching its peak. The shower is formed by debris from the tail of Halley’s Comet, so even if you are perfectly content with your life and have no wish list, you can still watch fragments of a comet fall into Earth’s atmosphere. The comet itself—or rather, its nucleus—won’t return to Earth’s vicinity until 2061.

The radiant (the point from which the "stars" appear to originate) is located, as you might guess, in the constellation Orion. A good landmark to look for is the star Betelgeuse. You can begin your observations around 11:00 PM local time, looking toward the east. The meteor shower will continue throughout the night. As the night progresses, the radiant will shift toward the southeast, and eventually toward the south—though that won’t happen until just before dawn.

Shooting stars can be seen even within a city, though naturally, only the brightest ones will be visible. Under a good, dark sky, you might expect to wait only a few minutes between meteors; in areas with significant light pollution, you could wait 20 to 30 minutes—though a lot depends on luck. Determining whether your sky is dark enough is fairly simple: just check if you can see the Big Dipper. If you can, you should be able to spot a shooting star. It is best to observe with the naked eye; using binoculars usually just gets in the way.

In general, meteor showers are usually visible for several days, so you’ll still have a chance tomorrow or the day after. So, if it’s cloudy where you are today, don’t be discouraged—fate might just grant you another opportunity.