The Orionids are peaking this week. If you've been waiting for a reason to stand outside in the cold with your neck craned back, this is it. One of the best-known meteor showers of the year is active now, and it won't fade until 7 November — which means you have time, but not forever. ## A Window Measured in Weeks Meteor showers don't arrive and vanish in a single night. The Orionids stretch across weeks, building to a peak and then tapering off. This week marks the height of activity, when the Earth passes through the densest part of the debris trail left behind by Halley's Comet. What you're watching isn't the comet itself — it's the dust and ice fragments it shed on previous orbits, burning up as they hit our atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour. The shower takes its name from the constellation Orion, because that's where the meteors appear to radiate from in the sky. You don't need to find Orion to see them, though. They'll streak across the whole dome of the sky, bright lines appearing and vanishing in less than a second. ## What the Dark Gives You Light pollution is the enemy here. The fainter meteors — and there are always more faint ones than bright ones — disappear against the glow of streetlights and shopping centers. If you can get away from town, do. If you can't, find the darkest patch of ground you have access to and let your eyes adjust. It takes twenty minutes for your night vision to fully develop. Don't check your phone. The moon's phase matters, too, though the BBC report doesn't specify what it'll be doing this week. A bright moon washes out faint meteors just as surely as a badly lit parking lot does. But the Orionids are known for producing some bright fireballs — meteors that flare intensely and sometimes leave persistent trails. Those you'll see even if conditions aren't perfect. ## The Comet's Long Shadow Halley's Comet won't return to the inner solar system until 2061. Most of us won't see it twice in a lifetime. But twice a ye