The Orionid Meteor Shower: When to Watch in Sioux Falls

The Orionid Meteor Shower is peaking this week

As long as I can remember I've been a skywatcher. I remember as a kid taking a class trip to a local planetarium and being wowed by all the stars, planets, and galaxies.

To this day I enjoy trying to pick out and name the different star constellations. I can usually pick out the North Star, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion the Hunter, and Gemini the Twins. After that, it gets a little trickier.

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The best time to see the Orionid Meteor Shower is the early morning on October 21

A while back I picked up a handy iPhone app called 'Planets'. All you do is open the app, point your phone in the direction you are looking and it will tell you the names of all the planets and constellations in view. Pretty cool!

This week the sky will be filled with visible “falling stars”. The Orionid meteors usually provide a light show in Oct. and Nov. The peak of the shower should be October 21, 2022.

"By the morning of October 20, with a slimmer moon in the sky and the shower nearing its peak, you’ll likely spot more meteors. And – by the morning of the shower’s peak on October 21 – the moon will be a slim crescent. By then the moon will enhance, not obscure, your enjoyment of 2022’s Orionid meteor shower." - EarthSky

The best time to watch for the greatest number of meteors according to EarthSky is a few hours before sunup. At the peak of the event, you could encounter 10 to 20 Orionids per hour.

According to the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, we might have some clouds, but mostly clear night skies are forecast for the rest of the week.