If you happen to be awake between midnight and dawn tonight, and live in an area with reasonably dark skies, go outside and spend some time looking up, towards the Southeast. It's the peak night of the Orionid Meteor Shower 2026. You may get lucky and see up to 20 meteors per hour! Although with the almost-full moon and the light pollution in most places, half that is probably much more likely.
Are you a meteor shower aficionado? I buy an old-fashioned almanac each year and look up the peak dates of all the major meteor showers well in advance. Even if the "peaks" don't fall when it's feasible to be up and outside, for a few days on either side it's good to be on the lookout at night. In my experience the most memorable showers are the Perseids in August or the Geminids in December. This year the Geminids are predicted to be especially good, and the peak is the night of December 13th into the 14th.
As for tonight's shower, I get up for work well before dawn, so I may go outside and look up for a while and see if I catch any shooting stars. And you should, too! We can all use some free wishes, can't we? (Especially here in the US with the midterms two weeks away).
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