The Orionid meteor shower reaches its peak tonight

The peak of the Orionids meteor shower is tonight and continues until Monday, but do you know how to watch it? Grab your jacket and lawn chair and be patient, the show is about to start, but it may take a while. The best time to view the meteor shower will be between midnight and early morning hours on Monday, before sunrise. However, you can still get a view even before that time frame, as long as the sun has set completely and is away from light pollution. Between late Sunday and Monday, you can see up to 30 meteors per hour. On average, most people watching this event will likely see between 10 and 20 degrees. Cloud cover will be at or near zero, making for perfect viewing. Combined with light pollution, the moon phase may cause vision problems, but you should still see some streaks across the midnight sky! If you missed the Orionids meteor shower this week, there’s always next year. Mark your calendars for October 20-23 as it usually returns to peak by those dates. You can still see some meteors from September 26 through November 22, when the shower is completely over.