2020 Orionids Shower

The annual Orionid meteor shower occurs when debris from Comet Halley intercepts the Earth at a high velocity (66 km/s, or 150,000 mph). This debris stream is somewhat diffuse, so we see activity for several days on either side of the peak.

This is a composite image of 117 Orionid meteors collected between sunset on October 18 and sunrise on October 22 (four nights). There was no interference from the Moon this year, but a front moving in brought some clouds and hazy skies, significantly reducing the meteor captures.

Since the images were collected over many hours, the radiant of the shower is not in a fixed location. Long string-like images are stars or planets captured as they traveled across the sky over many hours.

During this time of year there are many minor showers active in addition to the Orionids, but those meteors are not shown in this image. Over the time frame of the composite, the camera captured Andromedids, Epsilon Geminids, Leo Minorids, Southern Taurids, Northern Taurids, and numerous sporadics.