meteors

I saw another shooting star last night, the second one in three nights. It streaked in an arc across the southern sky just like the one Monday nighat. This time I was standing in the back yard after suppere, checking in with the garden. It's kind of neat to witness something like that, out of the dark blue, as it were.

Is there a well-known meteor shower happening now? I'm not in the habit of checking on current events in the sky, although I read somewhere that Mars and Venus are both visible right after sunset. I should listen to Block and Bird on "Earth and Sky" on the radio.

So I looked at Earth and Sky online, and they list the major annual meteor showers, of which there are two around this time of year:

October 21, Orionids. This is a modest shower but one that performs consistently. Its ZHR at maximum is 25, and with the radiant rising conveniently around 10 o'clock, meteors can be seen all night. Orionid meteors are zippy and faint, so if there is a Moon in the sky, you may as well pass on this one. You need a dark sky and dedicated vigilance.

November 5, Taurids. The Taurids is one of the humblest of the annual showers with a ZHR at maximum of only 10. And yet, I recall one early morning observing session with my telescope when I unintentionally stumbled upon an active display of meteors issuing from a region near the Pleiades, the shower's radiant. In one hour I counted a dozen or so meteors. These meteors are generally slow and fairly bright, and produce the occasional fireball.

Those don't sound like what I saw, Agent Mulder, but I know I saw something. "This man is obviously delusional," Scully added tersely. I'll be out there again tonight to see what I can see. Any naturalistic (or other) explanations?