Eyes on the skies Oct. 20th

AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is heading for Earth and it could cause a geomagnetic storm when it arrives on Oct 20th. Sky watchers, be alert for auroras.
ORIONID METEOR SHOWER: This weekend, a mild but pretty flurry of meteors will shoot out of the constellation Orion. The source is Halley's Comet:
Although the comet itself is far away, old clouds of dust from the comet are nearby, and Earth is about to run through them. Specks of Halley-dust hitting our atmosphere faster than 100,000 mph disintegrate as flashes of light--as many as 20 per hour. The best time to look is Saturday morning, Oct. 21st, just before local dawn: sky map.

COMET SWAN: Don't forget Comet Swan. You won't see it when you walk outside tonight; it's a smidgen too dim for the unaided eye (6th magnitude). But the comet is an easy target for backyard telescopes, materializing in the eyepiece as a beautiful emerald fuzzball.
Amateur astronomer Thorsten Boeckel took this picture on Oct. 17th. Perfect timing: He caught Swan gliding by the star Seginus in the constellation Bootes. Another, similar photo-op is due on Oct. 21st when Swan passes by Alkalurops. Sky maps: Oct. 20, 21.
http://www.spaceweather.com/