The Best Place to Take a Shower Tonight in Maine

Maine is expected to have warmer-than-usual temperatures over the next couple of days and clear night skies. This is great news for stargazers as this is the time of year when the Orionid meteor shower puts on a free show—you just need to look up!

What is the Orionid Meteor Shower?

The Orionid meteor shower is an annual meteor shower that lights up the sky every autumn. The meteors are debris left behind from Halley's Comet. That debris is nothing more than ice and dust.

Orionids zip through the sky at 41 miles (66 kilometers) per second, only 3 miles (5 km) per second slower than the speedy Leonids, according to NASA Science.

When and How Can I Watch the Orionid Meteor Shower?

The Orionid meteor shower will be on display in the Maine skies from September 26th until November 22nd.

In previous years, the shower produced up to 80 meteors per hour, but recently, a good night produces around 20 meteors per hour. The peak time to watch the Orionid meteor shower is tonight, October 21st, until the early hours of the morning. The optimal viewing hours are between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Despite Clear Maine Skies, It Will Still Be Challenging to See the Orionid Meteor Shower

It will be challenging to see the Orionid meteor shower over the next few days, but not impossible. Do you remember the beautiful supermoon, Hunter's Moon? That moon is still very bright in the sky, limiting the visibility of the Orionids. In fact, the moon is still 79% illuminated since being a supermoon.

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The best way to view the Orionids is to escape light pollution, (which shouldn't be difficult in Maine), lie flat on your back, and view areas away from the moon. As you're watching, remember that the meteors are traveling at 148,000 mph, and this is debris from Halley's Comet, which won't be visible again to us on Earth until 2061.