Meteor Showers

Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: April 30-May 6, 2012

April 29, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Are you ready for another week filled with bright planets, a meteor shower, challenging lunar features, interesting stars and astronomy history? Then you have come to the right place! Bring along your telescopes and binoculars and meet me in the backyard…

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Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: April 23-29, 2012

April 22, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! What a great week to just enjoy some great unaided eye astronomy observations. Who can resist the beautiful appearance of Mars in Leo? Also this week, you’ll enjoy not one – but two – meteor showers as the Mu Virginids come to town mid-week and the Bootids light up the weekend. Get [...]

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Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks April 21/22, 2012

April 20, 2012

You can take some meteor showers to the bank, like the Leonids, Perseids and Geminids. Other showers are more spikey; they can underperform one year, with just a few dozen meteors an hour, or boost up to hundreds in an hour – a full on meteor storm! Our next meteor shower, the Lyrids, is one [...]

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Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast – April 16-22, 2012

April 14, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It’s International Dark Skies Week and a great time to enjoy astronomy! We’ll start off with an impressive galaxy for even small optics and enjoy two meteor showers. There are planets and planetary nebula to explore, as well as some awesome globular clusters. If you’re in the mood, there’s some history to [...]

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Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: April 9-15, 2012

April 7, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It’s shaping up to be a great week to enjoy astronomy. For both hemispheres, the Virginid Meteor shower is underway and its peak occurs late Monday night / early Tuesday morning. Need more celestial fireworks? Then keep looking up as the “April Fireballs” will be visiting, with their peak beginning about a [...]

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Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: April 2-8, 2012

April 1, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Despite the Moon, it will be a great week as the month of April opens with two meteor showers. The planetary action doesn’t stop, because Venus is about to become a “guest star” in the Pleiades! Need more? Then know it’s the right time of year to spot aurora – and to [...]

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Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast – February 27-March 4, 2012

February 26, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It’s going to be a great week for lunar studies and an even better time to study some interesting single stars. Need more? Then keep an eye on the skies as the Delta Leonid meteor shower heats up towards its later week peak. Get out those binoculars and telescopes and I’ll see [...]

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NASA Provides Live All-Sky Video Feed for Quadrantid Meteor Shower

January 3, 2012

If you are hoping to see some meteors from the Quadrantid meteor shower but are being foiled by cloudy weather or if it’s just too cold outside to get up off your couch, NASA has come to the rescue. The Marshall Space Flight Center has set up a live all-sky camera feed of the skies [...]

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The 2012 Quadrantid Meteor Shower

January 2, 2012

The first of the 2012 meteor showers – The Quadrantids – peaks on the night of the 3rd and 4th of January. The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of the major annual meteor showers and often performs well under ideal observing conditions. The Quadrantids can be quite impressive with a Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of [...]

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Night Sky Guide: January 2012

December 30, 2011

January brings us striking views of the night skies! You’ll be able to see well known constellations during the long hours of darkness in the Northern hemisphere, with crisp cold skies. This is an ideal time to get out and look at the wonders of the night sky as there is so much to see [...]

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Top Astronomy Events Coming Up in 2012

December 22, 2011

As 2011 is drawing to a close, the festive season is here and many of us are winding down and looking forward to the holidays. But this is a great time to look ahead to 2012 and pencil into our calendar and diaries the top astronomical events we don’t want to miss next year. 2012 [...]

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Geminid Meteor Shower Reminder and There’s An App For That!

December 12, 2011

Have you been watching the Geminid Meteor Shower? With just hours to go before the peak, activity has been high – despite this year’s Moon! If you’d like to know more on the history of this meteor shower, then check out this great article by Adrian West. If you plan on watching and would like [...]

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Coming Attraction: Geminid Meteor Shower 2011

December 7, 2011

It’s the finale of this year’s meteor showers: The Geminids will start appearing on Dec. 7 and should reach peak activity around the 13th and 14th. This shower could put on a display of up to 100+ meteors (shooting stars) per hour under good viewing conditions. However, conditions this year are not ideal with the [...]

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Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks – November 17-19, 2011

November 14, 2011

Are you ready for a good, predictable meteor shower? Then break out your favorite skywatching gear because the 2011 Leonid meteor shower is already sparkling the skies…

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The Meteor and the Nordlys

October 22, 2011

A meteor slices through the glow of the northern lights (or “Nordlys”) in this photo by Adon Buckley, taken near the border of Norway and Finland on the night of October 19, 2011.

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Wake Up! The Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks On October 20…

October 17, 2011

Do you hate to get up early? Then stay up late, because it’s infrequent that both the northern and southern hemispheres have a chance to catch an annual meteor shower. Right now the Earth is heading into the complex Orionid stream, and while the skies won’t be perfectly dark, they aren’t going to be bad. [...]

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Did The Draconids Perform?

October 9, 2011

After weeks of speculation of its intensity, the Draconid/Giacobond meteor shower finally arrived. Some astronomers predicted that this normally quiet meteor shower would deliver up to 1000 meteors per hour at its peak – Were they right? At approximately 20:00 BST (21:00 UT) on October 8th 2011 the shower started in earnest and many in [...]

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Observing Alert – Draconid Meteor Shower Could Unleash A Burst Of Activity On October 8!

October 7, 2011

If you live in the Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East area, then keep watching the clock for 17-18:00 UTC when you may be in the right place at the right time for a burst of activity from the annual Draconid Meteor Shower. There’s a possibility you might see up to 1,000 meteors an [...]

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The Draconid Meteor Shower – A Storm is Coming!

October 3, 2011

The Draconids are coming! Will this meteor shower produce a storm of observable meteors, or just a minor squall? The Draconid Meteor Show should begin on October 8, 2011 starting at dusk (roughly 19:00 BST) and continue through the evening. Peak activity of this normally minor and quiet shower is estimated to be at 21:00 [...]

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Reports of a Bright Meteor over Southwestern US

September 15, 2011

Just a quick post here, I’m hearing reports that there was a really bright fireball (meteor) across Arizona, Nevada and California. I would really love to see pictures or video. Did anyone capture it? Email me at info@universetoday.com Eyewitnesses are saying it was brighter than the full Moon, and cast shadows. People have seen it [...]

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