In 1066, Halley’s Comet appeared just before the Battle of Hastings. The comet passed particularly close to the earth that year and was described by witnesses as a bright new star in the heavens. King Harold of England took it as a bad omen that he would lose the battle to William the Conqueror which we know, of course, he did. And we also know now that the comet probably had very little to do with it.
Halley’s comet swings through the inner solar system making itself visible to all of us here on Earth once every 76 years. It was 1986 the last time it swung by, and it won’t be back until 2061. Since that’s kind of a long time to wait, it’s fortunate that anyone can see bits and pieces of the comet every year in October when the Earth passes through the trail of debris it left on its last pass. This morning, I got up two hours before dawn and went out to watch, and try to photograph, the Orionid meteor shower.
I didn’t see any meteors but managed to photograph three. With 25 to 30 second exposure times, that wasn’t so hard to manage. I pushed the button on the camera and fidgeted in the cold drinking my coffee until I heard the shutter close and then pushed the button again. After an hour, I came in, reviewed the photos, and found 3 faint streaks indicating meteors. Then I drank coffee, ate chocolate eyeballs (my favorite Halloween candy), and watched the X-Files on Netflix until the sun rose and my family eventually got up. Not a bad morning.
So here’s the best of my meteors:
A few other interesting things in the photo: The brightest star in the frame, to the left of the meteor trail, is Jupiter. It appears right in the middle of the constellation Taurus. Almost directly to the left, at the edge of the frame, are the three stars making up Orion’s Belt. The top half of that constellation is also visible in the frame. The star cluster, Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, is also visible at the bottom of the frame near the tree tops. (If you continue the line defined by the meteor streak, toward the bottom of the photo, it will pass just to the left of the cluster.)
I’m just learning about the night sky and at first, could rarely find anything other than Orion or the Big Dipper without help. I use several websites to gather information but my favorite tool is the planetarium software, Stellarium. Here are a couple of screen shots showing the same part of the sky in the photo.
And here’s one with the constellation lines drawn in:
How cool is that? Stellarium can be downloaded for free at http://www.stellarium.org/
Though the best viewing was forecasted for this morning before dawn, the Orionid meteor shower will continue through tonight. See more here:
http://earthsky.org/tonight/radiant-point-for-orionid-meteor-shower
If you liked this post or learning a bit about things that happen in the night sky, you might enjoy the account of the last meteor shower I lost sleep over: Why I Stayed Up for the Perseids.
cage3
/ October 21, 2012I downloaded the Stellarium program and it is pretty awesome. I think I have a new interest. Thanks.
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012Yay! It is cool, isn’t it? I hope you have lots of fun with it.
Jody
/ October 21, 2012Thanks for the tour of the night sky. Very interesting! 🙂
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012I’m glad you enjoyed it. I just wish I was closer to a beach so I could get a better view. I need fewer trees and buildings, less light pollution, and a flat horizon.
Jody
/ October 23, 2012Well, being near to a beach is better for almost anything. 🙂 But your shots were still wonderful!
Fork in My Eye
/ October 23, 2012Thank you. And I agree – everything’s better at the beach!
muddledmom
/ October 21, 2012My son was telling me about Halley’s comet this weekend. I knew it had passed in the 80s sometime, but I couldn’t remember when. Nice shots. I’m so impressed. And I just love the X-Files. You definitely had a good morning.
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012I remembered Halley passing too but couldn’t remember why I didn’t see it. Apparently, viewing from the northern hemisphere wasn’t very good. Shame. The X-Files was a great show, wasn’t it? I was hooked on it for most of the nineties.
muddledmom
/ October 23, 2012Great show. Caught one of the movies, which weren’t as good, on rerun a few months back and had to stop everything to watch it.
Fork in My Eye
/ October 23, 2012We just got Netflix and I discovered I can re-watch all 9 seasons if I want. Some days it’s hard to resist the temptation to blow off everything and have a little X-File marathon.
muddledmom
/ October 23, 2012All 9 seasons! I missed some of the early years. I would love that.
Kathryn McCullough
/ October 21, 2012Okay, Tori, this is totally awesome! Wish I had even been aware this was happening. Can’t believe you got those shots!
Hugs,
Kathy
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012Thanks, Kathy. It’s all just luck and patience. And the willingness to stand out in the cold in my driveway for long periods of time in the middle of the night.
Aurora HSP
/ October 21, 2012LOVE this!
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012Glad you liked it!
Aurora HSP
/ October 23, 2012🙂
Barbara Backer-Gray
/ October 21, 2012Wow, I had no idea there was something like Stellarium. So now I have to get up in the middle of the night and take pictures of the sky… Thanks a lot! 😉
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012Stellarium is awesome. Our son’s science teacher led me to it a couple of years ago when he had the students download it to complete an astronomy assignment. For some reason, though, I could never get it to download properly on my computer – until I tried again the other night. I was so happy when it finally worked. Happy star-gazing!
Sandy Sue
/ October 22, 2012This is something I keep telling myself I want to do—study the constellations. Someday.
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012I’ve always wanted to learn the constellations too but I always put it off. I guess it’s finally time for me.
mthew
/ October 22, 2012Really thought of getting out bed early even though I was sick, but all the light pollution surrounding me just made me hunker back under the covers.
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012The light pollution is pretty bad here too, unfortunately. I had to point the camera almost straight up to get a relatively dark patch of sky. The cool thing is, when I looked at the exposures later, I realized that the camera could see stars I couldn’t. (The long exposure times allowed the fainter ones to show up in the photos.)
Sherrie
/ October 22, 2012Awesome shot and info Tori! I am downloading Stellarium today.
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012Oh good! You’ll love it, Coppertop.
Munira
/ October 22, 2012Fascinating stuff. Love anything to do with shooting stars and constellations 🙂
Fork in My Eye
/ October 22, 2012Me too!
spool2spool
/ October 26, 2012There are wonderful stories up there in the stars. Do more.