What are the chances that you’ll still be alive in 2061?

If you’d like to play it safe, then your only chance to see something of Halley’s Comet (or Comet Halley) happens once a year and will be happening this week.

Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime.

Halley’s Comet deposited streams of particles in the inner solar system when it moved past the earth in 1986.

According to Forbes, when those particles hit the Earth’s atmosphere, wonderful things happen.

…they energise and glow for a millisecond, something that happens as many as 40 times per hour to create a meteor shower.

This meteor shower is known as the Orionid meteor shower.

The Orionid meteor shower gets its name from the constellation its shooting stars appear to come from—Orion the Hunter. Astronomers call this the “radiant point”, which more precisely is close to an open cluster of stars called Collinder 69.

A lovely sight though binoculars and easy to see with the naked eye from a dark sky site, Collinder 69 can be found just above Orion the Hunter’s head. However, just look in the general direction of Orion’s Belt and you’ll see any shooting stars from the Orionid meteor shower.

Getaway notes that it’s one of the fastest meteor showers with some years peaking at up to 80 meteors per hour.

Here’s how to view it from South Africa:

 The best viewing days this year will be between the 22 and 23 October…

Th meteors are visible from anywhere on Earth, so South Africans will be able to see them if they go to an area with little light pollution. There is some risk that the moon will also be too bright this year. Space.com recommends going out early in the morning (around 1:30am) when the moon is not at its peak. It is meant to last till sunrise so there will be no shortage of opportunity to view this incredible sight.

Happy stargazing.

Oh, and for those who really aren’t keen to venture out into the darkness in the wee hours, here’s a live stream that starts later tonight:

[source:forbes&getaway]