Afrigather This weekend is probably going show to be thrilling for stargazers To not be outshined by final week’s successful NASA asteroid collision mission, the Draconid meteor shower will mild up the night time skies over Earth on October 8 and 9. Throughout the Draconid, Earth makes contact with hundreds of thousands of tiny, icy rocks that had been left by the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. In keeping with NASA, this 1.24 mile-wide comet crosses Earth’s orbit as soon as each 6 and a half years, making its final shut method in September 2018.
Sadly, the annual Hunter’s Moon can even peak this weekend, and the sunshine from the brilliant full moon will outshine the dazzling glittery meteors a bit. Normally, skywatchers can see roughly 10 to twenty meteors per hour throughout the Draconids, however the night time sky will doubtless be too vibrant to see many this yr.
[Related: How to photograph a meteor shower.]
The same rules apply to observe this meteor bathe that applies to just about all space-watching enjoyable: go to a darkish spot away from the lights of a metropolis or city and let the eyes modify to the darkness for a few half an hour. Viewing this meteor bathe doesn’t require a telescope or binoculars, simply eyes and a curious thoughts.
Meteor showers like this one happen when the Earth passes via the clouds of rocky particles which have been left behind by comets. Because the specs of comet flip and tumble via the environment, some of them catch fire and streak through the sky. This formally makes them meteors. They usually are too small to create any actual harm and most house rocks fritter away lengthy earlier than reaching floor. The hearty few who’re sufficiently big to outlive the plunge hit the ground as meteorites.
The Dragonid meteor bathe seems on Earth to be coming from the constellation Draco (the Latin phrase for dragon). This constellation positioned within the northern sky, that seems to have a serpent-like tail swooping between the Huge and Little Dippers.
[Related: A guide to the moon’s craters, seas, and ghostly shine.]
Whereas the Hunter’s Moon is stealing a number of the highlight from the Draconids, it’s nonetheless price getting a glimpse of over the weekend. The Hunter’s Moon rises each October, and refers to fall looking season, when animals are bigger after spending the summer season consuming to organize for winter, in keeping with The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Some other names for October’s moon in the US are the Migrating Moon (Cree), the Freezing Moon (Ojibwe), and the Blood Moon, amongst others.
This yr, will probably be brightest on Sunday, October 9. It hits peak brightness at around 4:55 p.m. EST, however the moon ought to nonetheless look like full a number of hours later when the sky is daker.
