(Outer space) – If …as predicted…the skies are clear between Friday night and Saturday morning, and you don’t mind staying up late or getting up early, there’s a good chance you’ll see the 2023 Orionid meteor shower. The celestial event will be visible in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

Clear skies are expected for the Omaha area, with the hours between midnight and dawn being the best to spot the Orionids. There will be a waxing crescent moon on Friday evening, which will bring more illumination to the night sky. According to the website Earthsky.org, the Orionids radiate from a point near the upraised club of the constellation Orion the Hunter. The bright star near the radiant point is the reddish Betelgeuse.

Image from Theplanets.org.

The Orionids are produced from Halley’s Comet’s particles on its inbound leg. They are moving in one direction, we are moving in nearly the opposite direction, and the combined speeds produce fast-moving meteors. But we also encounter its particles from its outbound leg when it’s leaving the inner solar system. We reach that point in early May. They produce the Eta Aquariids meteor shower. So this comet generates two meteor showers.

Halley’s Comet was last here in 1986 and will return in 2061. But the Orionids never go away, they’re here every October.