One of the year’s most reliable meteor showers peaks this weekend, and conditions look favorable. Mostly clear skies are expected, and the slim 25-percent crescent moon will wash out fewer meteors than in previous years.
Meteors may appear lower in the northern sky as early as 6:30 p.m., once the sky is fully dark, but don’t expect more than five to ten per hour during the evening.
The best viewing will be after midnight, especially between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., when the constellation Gemini climbs highest in the sky. Activity increases in the pre-dawn hours as Earth turns directly into the stream of debris left behind by asteroid 3200 Phaethon, the shower’s unusual source,
As Gemini continues to rise, meteors that were previously below the horizon come into view. Under suburban skies, you may see a few dozen per hour after 2 a.m., even more from darker rural areas.
What happened to 120 per hour?
Predictions of 120 meteors per hour come from the Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR), a standard formula astronomers use to compare observations from around the world. The ZHR mathematically removes everything that prevents you from seeing meteors like clouds, light pollution, and even moonlight.
A good rule of thumb is to expect about half that number under very dark rural skies, half again for typical suburban locations, and progressively fewer as light pollution increases.
Viewing tips
- Patience: Allow your eyes at least 15 minutes to adjust to the darkness, you’ll be amazed how more stars, shooting or otherwise, you can see.
- More Patience Meteors tend to come in groups rather than spread out across the hour, so don’t get discouraged if you’ve been out for 15 or 20 minutes and seen nothing.
- Leave your phone inside: each time you look at your phone, that 15 minutes stars over
- Look to the darkest part of the sky: Though they’ll be coming from the direction of the constellation Gemini, which will be directly overhead by 2 a.m., they can appear anywhere in the sky. Put your neighbor’s porch light or the bright street light behind you.
- Bundle up: Saturday afternoon’s unseasonably warm temperatures will drop to near freezing overnight
Also look for Jupiter about halfway up the dome of the eastern sky by midnight. Meteors to appear to come from the radiant point just above the two stars to the left of Jupiter, Castor and Pollux, the brightest in the constellation Gemini.