Three Halley Debris Meteors Flash Over Toccoa Before Orionid Peak
Tim McCollum captured the trails on Oct. 21 using a star tracker and composite imaging, documenting the comet's persistent debris field.
By Pavel Bell ·
Three bright meteors from Halley's Comet streaked across the Georgia sky in the early morning hours of Oct. 21. The capture occurred two days before the Orionid meteor shower reached its peak activity. Astrophotographer Tim McCollum recorded the event above Toccoa, Georgia, between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.
The meteors consisted of particles shed by Comet 1P/Halley. The comet itself is currently more than 3 billion miles from Earth. Despite that distance, the debris left in the comet's path continued to burn up in the atmosphere. Each meteor in the image radiated from a specific point in the sky. This radiant lies near Betelgeuse, a red giant star in the constellation Orion.
McCollum used a Canon EOS Ra camera paired with an RF 28-70 f2.0 lens to capture the scene. He employed a star tracker to keep the camera aimed at the radiant. The process involved taking multiple 30-second exposures. He later merged these individual frames into a single composite image using PixInsight software.
The final photograph includes several deep sky objects alongside the meteor trails. Orion's Belt and the Orion Nebula appear on the right side of the frame. The Rosette Nebula, cataloged as Caldwell 49, is also visible within the starfield. The Milky Way's galactic plane runs diagonally across the image, displaying dense dust lanes and numerous star clusters.
The Orionid shower remains active until Nov. 7. Skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere can still observe the display on upcoming nights. The shower is fed by debris from Halley's Comet, which orbits the sun every 75 to 76 years. The current activity represents the annual intersection of Earth's orbit with that debris trail.
A secondary meteor shower is also active during this period. Earth is passing through debris streams from Comet 2P/Encke. This produces the Taurid meteor shower, which is known for occasional bright fireballs around Halloween. Observers may see these larger objects in addition to the standard Orionid streaks.
Source: Space.com
