Meteor shower to peak in California sky soon. Here’s when — and how to catch a glimpse
Get ready, stargazers.
A major meteor shower is about to shoot across the California sky and you can catch a glimpse under prime conditions.
The Draconid meteor shower will peak in the Northern Hemisphere in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Oct. 8, according to NASA.
Here’s how to catch a glimpse:
Where do meteors come from?
Meteors are leftover particles from comets and broken asteroids, according to NASA.
As comets orbit the sun, they leave dusty trails behind them.
When Earth passes through these trails, the bits of dust collide with Earth’s atmosphere, causing meteors to burn up and create bright streaks in the sky.
What is the Draconid meteor shower? When is it?
The Draconid meteor shower is linked to the Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which was first discovered by Michel Giacobini in 1900, according to EarthSky, an Austin-based nonprofit organization that shares updates on the cosmos.
This periodic comet orbits the sun every 6.6 years, occasionally producing spectacular “meteor storms” with hundreds to thousands of meteors per hour.
These events occurred in 1933 and 1946, and increased activity was observed in 1985, 1998, 2011 and 2018.
Since the comet has an orbital period of nearly seven years, its next meteor storm won’t occur until 2025, EarthSky said.
How can I watch the meteor shower in California?
The Draconid meteor shower is unique because it is most radiant in the sky right after nightfall, making the evening hours better for viewing than after midnight, EarthSky said.
The best time to view the Draconid meteor shower in California is from the evening of Monday, Oct. 7, through the early morning hours of Tuesday, Oct. 8.
“Unlike many meteor showers, more Draconids are likely to fly in the evening hours than in the morning hours after midnight,” EarthSky said.
This meteor shower is “usually a sleeper,” EarthSky said, producing only a few slow-moving meteors per hour.
