Mother Nature is expected to treat us with the spectacle of its natural fireworks show as millions get ready tonight to bask at the skies looking for the expected Orionid metor shower.
The meteor shower, as Fox News reports, is expected to reach its apex overnight from Saturday to Sunday as the skies will be lit up with brilliant debris-known as Orionids- from the famous Hailey's Comet.
The comet was named after famed English astronomer Edmond Hailey, who in 1705, suggested that a comet last seen in 1682 was similar to the one that passed through the skies in 1531 and 1607. After correctly predicting the comet's return in 1758, the comet was forever linked with Hailey by being given his name.
The Orionids pass by every October as the Earth passes through the orbit of the comet, which last was seen in February 1986 over Earth's skies. The comet is due to be seen again in 2061, astronomers suggest.
But people won't have to wait that long to see the dazzling array of shooting stars tonight.
"Since 2006, the Orionids have been one of the best showers of the year, with counts in some years up to 60 or more meteors per hour," Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Ala., told ABC News. "If you don't want to wait until 2061, this is a way to see a bit of Halley's Comet."
Anyone who seeks to learn more about the Orionids-including how to observe them this weekend-can join Cooke and his team Saturday in a live web chat overnight, from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. People can log on to this NASA web page at the appointed time to participate.
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