Night Sky

More Meteor Showers

Last month, I wrote about the annual Orionid meteor shower peaking early in the morning of October 22nd. Unfortunately, here, clouds covered most of the sky at the show’s peak. However, before and after the predicted peak, without trying, I did manage to catch sight of three “falling stars.” Lesson learned, we travel through each comet’s trail weeks before and after their incidence “peaks.”

For example, currently, the Taurid meteor storm began in September and will end in December. The South Taurid branch was predicted to peak earlier this week, on November 6th (while rain was falling in Downieville), and the North Taurid branch is expected to peak on November 13th, during a new moon, the darkest and therefore best time of the month to observe an extremely ephemeral meteor.

Alas, the morning of the 13th is also the time when the National Weather Service (NWS) says 35 percent of the sky will be covered by clouds. Indeed, looking at the jetstream forecast for the northern hemisphere made yesterday by PivotalWeather.com, it appears the next time the sky will be clear over our area at night won’t happen until Saturday, November 18th.

But if the weather keeps us from seeing the Taurids, don’t worry. The Leonid meteor shower is peaking on the 18th, and in mid-December, given ideal (dark sky with no moon or clouds) conditions, observers might catch 120 Geminid meteors per hour, ten to twenty times more than the Taurids typically bring.