The 2026 Orionid meteor shower peaks on the night between October 21 and October 22. The Orionids can produce bright, fast meteors that make for a spectacular show with the constellation Orion in the background.
Here’s an interactive map and more info to help you get oriented: Orionids Meteor Shower 2026. And this week’s a great time to check it out because the moon, while waxing, has a way to go before it’s full. And darker skies mean brighter stars.
I’m posting this today because while the Orionids will peak in a day or two, they’re already happening. Day and night. Right above us! So even if you can’t get outside or there are clouds on those particular nights or you’re just wishing for a touch of cheer, these shooting stars will continue through November 7th.
How worried should we be about giant asteroid impacts? In this episode of Crash Course Geology, we’ll learn how to tell an asteroid from a meteorite, what happens when space rocks approach the Earth, and how scientists track potential threats before they reach us.
From the Sun’s corona to animal behaviour and human emotions, these rare celestial events continue to provide scientists with valuable insights more than two millennia after they were first observed.
Tomorrow is an interesting day, astronomically speaking. Let me check my list; it’s a long one (and be warned, exclamation marks ahead!).
Let’s see:
solar eclipse, check
meteor shower, check
planetary conjunction, check!
The Eclipse
Parts of Western Europe will see a total eclipse, the first visible on mainland Europe in 27 years, but many other places on Earth will have at least a partial version. When and where can you see it? Here’s a look at the timing.
While totality will be visible from parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain, millions more people across Europe will experience a dramatic partial solar eclipse. Whether you’re chasing the moon’s shadow in Reykjavik or watching the moon take a ‘bite’ out of the sun from London, Paris, or Berlin, timing is everything.
New York City will only see about 9% totality just before 2pm, for example, but if you happen to be in London at 7:13pm, well, 91% totality for you!
The project, entitled “The Prado in the light of the eclipse”, proposes a progressive transformation of the lighting applied to some of the most iconic paintings in the celebrated gallery. Through this shift in light, the video shows how small variations in illumination can radically alter the perception of colours, shapes and the atmosphere of the paintings, revealing details and nuances that everyday light leaves hidden.
That’s already a lot, and we haven’t even talked about meteors or other planets!
The day starts before the Sun comes up. On the morning of August 12, six planets — Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune — will appear spread across the sky.
Do not expect a tight line of bright dots. This is a wide planetary alignment, stretching from the horizon across a large part of the sky. Mars and Saturn will be the easiest planets to spot with the naked eye. Mercury will sit low above the horizon shortly before sunrise. Jupiter will be bright, but very close to the horizon. Uranus and Neptune will need binoculars or a telescope.
Check the link above for times, but for me this would be just after 6am.
It’s going to be a pretty special day, astronomically speaking. Actually, I should have set up this post in terms of time (location dependent, of course!), like so:
early morning: planet parade
early afternoon: solar eclipse
evening: Perseid meteor shower!
If you have a few moments and clear sky, check it out. There’s a lot going on up there!
* * *
A map showing viewing areas of the August 2026 total solar eclipse. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Created from thousands of images, the sequence begins with Mars as a small crescent in the distance. During close approach on May 15, the Red Planet’s cratered surface fills the imager instrument’s field of view. As the spacecraft departs Mars, the changing perspective reveals the planet’s icy south pole.
Want to learn more about the mission? Here’s an article from NASA:
One of the (many) great things about NASA is that the images it produces are public domain. What might a curious and creative person do with such imagery? Why, cut it together as a moon mission movie, of course!
“I have been completely spellbound by the images coming out of NASA’s Artemis II mission,” Boswell wrote on YouTube. “NASA / ESA deserves best cinematography at the Oscars! I dropped everything to put together a tribute to the mission, piecing together the best, highest resolution footage and mission photography with a custom eight-minute score.”
In case you could use a little space-based inspiration today. Thank you, John D. Boswell!
Today, I’d like to pay tribute to Wally Funk, one of the early pioneers in flight and one of the first women to train with NASA. She didn’t get to be an official astronaut in the end, but she could fly just about anything, trained thousands at her own flight school, and much more. She also made a suborbital flight via Blue Origin’s New Shepard ship in 2021, becoming the oldest woman to reach space at 82.
“I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer.”
If you’re interested in the history of space, or women in space, or kick-ass ladies in general, I highly recommend the 2018 documentary Mercury 13 on Netflix.
Here’s to Wally’s example of determination, perseverance, and all-around excellence, and to finding ways to make dreams come true!
Tomorrow night is the second full moon of May, which makes it a blue moon. They are rare but not very, as they happen every two or three years. The next one won’t happen until December 2028.
People who step outside at the end of the month to catch a glimpse of the rare lunar event should also be able to spot Venus and Jupiter in the western sky about an hour after sunset. Meanwhile, early risers should be able to see Mars and Saturn in the eastern sky about an hour before daybreak.
I wanted to let you know a day ahead of time in case you, like me, like to have these things on your calendar!
Some space veterans seemed to find this scent quite pleasant. “It is hard to describe this smell; it is definitely not the olfactory equivalent of describing the palate sensations of some new food that ‘tastes like chicken.’
Yes, these are the things I find interesting about space. Not the math (with apologies to all my math teachers ever) or the physics (with apologies to all the classes I never took), but the lived experience.
When I’m thinking about a story and need to ground the reader, this sort of information is useful. What would it feel like, what would it taste like?
And to save you from tracking down one of the many (many) space-themed Artemis links I’ve put up over the past couple of days, you can watch tonight’s homecoming here starting at 6:30pm EDT!
You must be logged in to post a comment.