November 14 2012 – Loud booms from Meteor Streak Across Northern California Skies, Bay of San Francisco, USA
Hundreds of people from Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz witnessed on the 15th November 2012 a glowing fireball exploding and booming loudly in the sky over the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA at around 19:45 (7.45 PM). Experts say it is probably pieces of the Comet Halley.
A meteor shower (2012 Orionid meteor shower) will be shooting across Bay Area skies early Sunday morning. The planet Earth is indeed going through a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, the source of the Orionids. If weather is permitting the best time to see the Orionid meteor shower will be Sunday morning around 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. You should get away from city lights and face east to see the shower, which will have about 10 to 15 fireballs/ hours (sometimes reaching up to 60/hours).
Debris of the Comet Halley, which orbit passes that of the Earth every 75 to 76 years was last viewed in Febrauary 1986. The Comet Halley produces two main meteor showers per year: the Orionids in November and the Eta Aquarids in May.
