One of the brightest meteor showers of the year is expected to brighten the night sky between midnight and dawn of Sunday morning, 22 October.
This is the 2017 Orionid meteor shower and, according to NASA, the meteors in this shower are formed by the debris from Halley’s Comet.
NASA urged the public to watch the night sky before dawn in a dark area, adding that about 20 meteors might be seen every hour.
Be dazzled by the Orionid meteor shower, peaking Oct 20-21! Watch before dawn in a dark area. May see ~20 meteors/hr https://t.co/skIudgju38 pic.twitter.com/yuCD8MZVi1
— NASA (@NASA) October 21, 2017
Jane Houston Jones from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, describes in a YouTube video, posted at the end of September, that the Orionids were expected to peak on 20 October, a night described as a ‘dark, moonless night’.
She advised, “Use binoculars to look for bright asteroid 7 Iris in the constellation Aries. Newbies to astronomy should be able to spot this magnitude 6.9 asteroid.”
Watch the video:
It is hoped the night sky would be clear, however, the SA Weather Service has issued a warning this evening that storms were expected in Gauteng on Saturday evening.
On Saturday afternoon, the weather service said storms had formed along a line over the North West and eastern Free State. Storms were spreading into northern KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mpumalanga.
Storms forming along a line over eastern NW and eastern FS, spreading into N KZN and southern MPU, also into GAU later. Alerts issued. pic.twitter.com/DnGPCxLuMt
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) October 21, 2017
Hail and rain pelted down in Parys on Saturday afternoon.
Frankfort Vrystaat hael & reën 12mm Erkenning aan Celia du Preez @SAWeatherServic @JoelGuy_ @eNCAWeather @volksbladnuus @debeer_anika @eNCA pic.twitter.com/NF6fDOLJgd
— ReenvalSA (@ReenvalSA) October 21, 2017
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