New Meteor Shower This Weekend

[SLAYER]

A never before seen meteor shower may peak this weekend.

If predictions hold true, then a genuine meteor storm may be in store for sky-watchers, with as many as 200 or more shooting stars per hour flying across our skies at its peak, which will occur in the morning in Europe and very early in North America, on Saturday, May 24.

The new shower, dubbed the May Camelopardalids, is a result of dust shed from the faint periodic comet 209P/LINEAR. The comet regularly crosses Earth’s orbit as it rounds the sun every five years.

The coming shower’s parent comet was discovered in February 2004 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research Project. Meteor experts predicted three years ago that the particles ejected by the comet back in the 1800s may await Earth as it circles the sun.

By calculating the movements of the comet’s particle cloud, scientists have been able to determine that Earth should cross this historic debris stream on May 24.

As with other established showers, the new meteors are named for the constellation from which they appear to radiate—the faint northern constellation Camelopardis, the Giraffe, in this case. It resides near the North Star.

To find the constellation, face north in the early morning hours before dawn and look for the Big Dipper in the sky. The giraffe constellation is located to its far right and is about 30 degrees below Polaris, the North Star. That’s about equal to the width of three fists held at arm’s length and stacked on top of each other.

The absolute peak of the shower, when Earth is predicted to make its way through the thickest part of the debris stream, is expected to arrive between 6 and 8 a.m. Universal Time, or 2 to 4 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on May 24.

North Americans are favored for the sky show because the peak time occurs during the darkest hours of nighttime, when the radiant is at its highest point in the sky. Look downstream of the radiant to catch sight of the meteors.



1st image shows the current position of comet 209P/LINEAR.

2nd image shows when Earth will pass through the densest part of the comet debris cloud.

3rd image just shows where the constellation Camelopardis is located in the North, but you don't have to be looking in that direction.

I'll probably try to check it out at about 2:00 AM Saturday.

[mysteryman]

And as is almost always, it's going to be cloudy & or raining here this weekend

[Armanoïd]

Pegasus ryu sei ken !