October meteor showers: Orionids

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(I'll leave this post on top for awhile, as a reminder.  Scroll down for other posts.)


Orion has been my favorite constellation since I was a kid, but I never knew that it was the radiant for a meteor shower!  (Don'tya just love learning right along with your kids.....gotta love homeschooling!  )

You can view the Orionids between October 15 and October 29, with the peak being the wee hours of October 21.  (The 20th and 22nd may also be good for viewing.)

There are not as many meteors as with our favorite shower, the Perseids, in August.  There are only about 20 an hour at peak for the Orionids.  But hey, we homeschoolers will look for any excuse to get outside to "do school".......even if it is 1 a.m.!!!  Yeah, we're slave drivers....

So look up to the skies the last couple weeks of October.  Find Orion in the southeastern sky and look to the left of his left shoulder (the star Betelgeuse, a fun word pronounced as "beetle jews", which when said fast sounds like "beetle juice" )

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