Orionid Meteors peak Oct 21 2012 before sunrise!

Space Weather News for Oct. 20, 2012

ORIONID METEOR SHOWER: Today, Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters expect 25 meteors per hour when the shower peaks on Sunday, Oct 21st.

No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise on Sunday morning. Observers in both hemispheres can see this shower. Visit SpaceWeather for photos, more information, and live audio from a meteor radar.

It's Orionid Meteor season! Oct 21 and 22, 2010

With the stars of the constellation Orion at the top of my natal chart and with Autumn being my favorite season, anything that involves Orion always claims my attention. In fact, many of my Cosmic and Moon Art illustrations have Orion tucked somewhere in the sky if you look closely!

Space Weather News for Oct. 20, 2010

SUNDIVING COMET: A newly-discovered comet is plunging toward the sun for a close encounter it probably will not survive. The comet is too deep in the sun's glare for human eyes to pick out, but it is showing up nicely in coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

Visit SpaceWeather.com for the latest movies.

ORIONID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, and this is causing the annual Orionid meteor shower. Bright moonlight is reducing the number of visible meteors; nevertheless, sky watchers are reporting some bright Orionids.

The best time to look is during the hours before local dawn on Thursday, Oct 21st, and again on Friday, Oct 22nd. Check SpaceWeather News for a sky map and more information.

Orion and the Orionids

Having the constellation Orion at natal MC, I always feel pleased when it's Orionid Meteor Time...peaking Oct 21, so get your peepers on!

Space Weather News for Oct 15, 2007

In recent nights, sky watchers have noticed meteors shooting out of the constellation Orion. This signals the beginning of the annual Orionid meteor shower caused by space dust from Halley's Comet.

The shower is feeble now, producing only a few bright meteors per hour, but the show will improve as we approach the shower's peak on Oct 21st. Last year, observers counted as many as 50 Orionids per hour when Earth passed through the thick of Halley's dust trail and another good display may be in the offing.

You sleep that you may wake You die that you may live.

--Egyptian pyramid text

Do you know that there are those who believe that Christ's Second Coming will be from the direction of the Belt of Orion?

This easy-to-spot constellation contains Betelgeuse (Alpha Orion--mentioned in Scripture), keywords: success which is unhindered.

As you know, Orion also contains Rigel (Beta Orion), keywords: to bring knowledge to others; the educator.

Rigel is actually the brightest star in Orion, while Betelgeuse (in Orion's armpit) is second brightest, and Bellatrix (the left shoulder) is third.

Keywords for Bellatrix: success through the shadow.

Other stars: Mintaka = the belt; Alnilam = the middle star in the belt; Alnitak = the last star in the belt; Saiph = the right thigh; Thabit = the sword.

So there we have Orion, the hunter, the immortal god, the giant. He is linked with everlasting fame, success, martial honor, changeability, and sometimes rashness. In a natal chart, much depends on what planets and angles a star is linked with--parans, etc, and their expressions in the life may be either positive or negative.

Greek stories about Orion echo Egyptian mythology for their tales of him have the common flavor of Orion going blind or dying and then being reborn through association of some kind with the Sun.

Here's another snippet from an Egyptian pyramid text, gleaned for you from Brady's Book of Fixed Stars (#ad):

I fly from you, oh men, I am not for the earth I am for the sky. I have soared to the sky as a heaven. I have kissed the sky as a falcon. I am the essence of a god, the son of a god. Behold the faithful and loving Osiris has come as the stars of Orion, the Beautiful One. I have come that I may glorify Orion. My soul is a star of gold and with him I will traverse the sky forever.

So the figure of Orion (Osiris) is an archetype of God and of the hero's journey we each are responsible for taking on the earth. Hope yours is going well...for guidance and be sure to look up!

This post edited for clarity June 3, 2022 jc