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Begin watching for Taurid fireballs tonight
November 5th, 2009, 5:54 pm · 10 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
LOOK, UP IN THE SKY: The meteors will appear to come from Constellation Taurus. Map courtesy of Spaceweather.com
Most people have heard of the annual Perseid meteor shower, which reaches its peak during a night-long period every August. But what about the Taurid meteor shower, which occurs when Earth passes through tiny debris shed by Comet 2p/Encke? Are you familiar with it? In many ways, the Taurids, which begins a week-long peak period tonight, is more interesting than the Perseids. As Spaceweather.com notes, “At most, only about 5 Taurids per hour streak across the sky, but what they lack in number they make up for in dazzle. Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, very bright and slow. Look for them falling out of the constellation Taurus during the hours around midnight.” Some astronomers refer to the Taurids as slow, which they are, compared to some other meteor showers. But the Taurids is caused by debris from a comet strikes Earth’s upper atmosphere at about 37 miles per second, says NASA. Put another way, the meteors could cover the 41 mile length of the Orange County coastline in just over one second.
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Will it be clear at midnight? If so, I think I will stay up and watch! I live up against the Cleveland Nat’l Forest and it’s nice and dark by that time if I drive up one of the smaller roads in Trabuco.
Hi Nancy. The latest forecast says it will be mostly clear in Orange County at midnight. I should have added that.
What time zone is that midnight for sciencedude?
The time zone is our time zone.
So on the east coast should we begin watching at 3 am? Help!
The map shows what the sky will look like at midnight in all time zones.
oh…okay…thanks so much!
need a telescope to see it or can it been seen with the naked eye?
Naked eye
I’m not sure if this was one but driving home from the library tonight at my university I saw a large greenish ball of fire falling from the sky with a yellow / golden tail behind it. From my view point it looked to be about the size of a basket ball to my naked eye. I’m sure it was very far away.