What will the meteor shower look like

I live in central MA. As I watched stared out my window over the woods to beyond tonight, thinking of my kitty who escaped into the night a week ago tonight, the biggest and brightest shooting star flew right over the treetops. It was amazing and brought tears to my eyes. Perhaps every time a shooting star flies across the skies, one of our pets goes to heaven. One can imagine. I live in Mooroolbark Victoria , I saw what my mother would call a 'falling star' last night, aout 10 or 11pm.

Very bright, and aeemed very close. It was breathtakingly beautiful! July 3rd south twin falls, Idaho multi colored in north sky about pm. And I saw that row of lights, I wish I knew what those were! Makes a guy stop and say hmmmmmm. Gruber, March 8 by Lucy the UK, etc. A series of what looked like satellites heading about southeast.

Each would appear, then disappear, and then briefly re-appear. They were on the same line. There were maybe 15 total, and then they stopped. Same activity…bright shooting stars moving fast, but dying in couple seconds, followed by another and another going in same direction, and same number of bursts… How strange is that? I saw one yesterday approximately 7pm. It was quite large and fissled out right in front of my eyes I live in coffs harbour nsw Went from south to north at least it looked like it , very low in the sky.

So bright. In total I saw about 14, I have never seen such a thing but looks like other people have other times in the past very interesting. Saw a meteor flash in the sky in South Florida amid all the street lights. It burst like a fireball and then broke up into red trails in the sky. Today around 5. Feb 6, my daughter and I were traveling south and we saw a fireball going from left to right around 6p. It started high on our left and quicky dropped to our right, going east to west.

It looked like an airplane on fire. What was it? So I went outside about a. Hi there. If you mean the path of a shooting star meteor as it travels across the sky, then normally it basically follows a straight line. This way, your eyes will be more likely to notice any movement and you will see more meteors this way. Most importantly, be patient! If you are lucky, you might see a meteor as often as every few minutes.

You may not see one that often. The quality of the "show" depends on the specific meteor shower, the time you are observing, the conditions of the sky, the phase of the moon, and other things. What Is a Meteor Shower? Meteor shower! Meteors A meteor is a space rock—or meteoroid—that enters Earth's atmosphere.

When Earth encounters many meteoroids at once, we call it a meteor shower. But not to worry! Plan ahead Here are dates of major meteor showers. Have a shooting star party! If you liked this, you may like: Asteroid or Meteor: What's the Difference?

Printed Product Downloads. A live broadcast of the meteor shower from a camera in Huntsville, AL if our weather cooperates! Eastern time 8 p.

CT and continuing until the early hours of August Perseid meteors, caused by debris left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle, began streaking across the skies in late July and will peak on August Combine these ideal observing conditions and high rates an average of 60 meteors per hour at the peak with the fact that the best nights for viewing — August 11 to 12 and August 12 to 13 — occur on a weekend and you have a recipe for successfully viewing some celestial fireworks!

Make plans to stay up late or wake up early the nights of August 11 to 12 and August 12 to Note that telescopes or binoculars are not recommended. Some of these events get blown a bit out of proportion. A classic example is that every time Mars comes to opposition closest approach to Earth , the internet reverberates with the very false statement that Mars will appear as large as the Moon at that time.

We wish this were true… but no such thing is going to happen. For one thing, the Perseids never reach storm levels thousands of meteors per hour. At best, they outburst from a normal rate between meteors per hour to a few hundred per hour. The best Perseid performance of which we are aware occurred back in , when the peak Perseid rate topped meteors per hour. Last year also saw an outburst of just over meteors per hour.

This year, we are expecting enhanced rates of about per hour or so, but the increased number will be cancelled out by the bright Moon, the light of which will wash out the fainter Perseids. I think many meteor researchers would give that award to the Leonids, which had rates of tens of thousands, perhaps even ,, meteors per hour. During a good Perseid shower under ideal conditions, you can see about one meteor per minute.

Now imagine yourself being back in , on the night of Nov. The scene was truly awful; for never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell towards the Earth; east, west, north and south, it was the same. The storm had a profound effect on those that witnessed it; it also gave birth to modern meteor science.

Those of us who study meteors dream of such a display happening sometime within our lifetimes. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks overnight on January 4. From its brightness, it is estimated that this piece of an asteroid weighed at least pounds and was over 16 inches in diameter.

It entered the atmosphere at a steep angle and moved almost due south at a speed of 29, miles per hour. The NASA cameras tracked it to an altitude of 17 miles above the town of Locust Grove, where it had slowed to a speed of miles per hour, at which point the meteor ceased producing light by burning up.

It is possible that fragments of this object survived to reach the ground as meteorites. A more detailed analysis will be performed tomorrow and further details will follow if this analysis still indicates the possibility of a meteorite fall. Ground track, still images from the cameras, and a movie from the NASA camera located in Cartersville, Georgia attached. The Geminid meteor shower peaks on the night of December 13 through the morning of December Geminid rates can get as high as per hour, with many fireballs visible in the night sky.

Best viewing is just before dawn. Cooke, Rhiannon Blaauw and Danielle Moser will be available to answer questions between the hours of 10 p. CST, beginning the evening of December 13, until 2 a. December 14 CST. How to View the Geminid meteor shower The best opportunity to see the Geminid Meteor shower is during the dark pre-dawn hours of December For optimal viewing find an open sky — because Geminid meteors come across the sky from many all directions.

Lie on the ground and look straight up into the dark sky. Again, it is important to be far away from artificial lights.

Remember, your eyes can take up to thirty minutes to adjust to the darkness, so allow plenty of time for your eyes to adjust. About the Geminids Geminids are pieces of debris from an object called Phaethon. Long thought to be an asteroid, Phaethon is now classified as an extinct comet. Basically it is the rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun.

Earth runs into a stream of debris from Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini. When the Geminids first appeared in the early 19th century, shortly before the U.