With a forecast of heavy cloud cover and rain throughout the period, tonight’s peak of the Northern Taurid meteor shower is most likely a bust for anyone looking forward to spotting the fireballs.
The peak is expected around midnight.
The North Taurid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Taurus the Bull, which will rise over the northeast horizon at 7-8 p.m. November 11. But, if the sky was clear, the meteors would be seen flashing across the entire sky.
The meteors of the Taurid shower are bits of dust and ice debris left behind by the comet Encke as it orbits the sun.
After the Taurids, next on the celestial calendar is the third of 3 new moon supermoons on November 15. The first of the 3 was September 17 and the second was October 16.
A new moon occurs about once each month when the Moon aligns with the Sun between Earth and the Sun with the side of the Moon that is not illuminated facing Earth.
The Moon becomes a new moon supermoon when that first phase of the lunar cycle coincides with the Moon making its closest approach to Earth, a point known as the perigee of the Moon’s orbit around Earth.
The upcoming new moon supermoons will occur when the Moon is 222,666 miles from Earth.
Supermoon or regular new moon, we don’t generally see a new moon with our unaided eyes. It’s not illuminated by the Sun and it tends to rise and fall with the Sun.
We may not see a new moon supermoon, but the tides in Earth’s oceans feel the closeness of it. High tides are higher and low tides are lower when the Moon is at perigee.
Completing the astronomical triple play this period, the Leonid meteor shower is expected to produce 10-15 meteors per hour at its peak on November 17, but it’s a shower known for producing the occasional storm.
The first great meteor shower of modern times was the Leonids in November 1833, and in 1966 the Leonid storm produced 100,000 shooting stars per hour.
The meteors of this shower are debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, the orbital path of which the Earth crosses every year in November.
They appear to originate in the constellation Leo, but meteor-watching really is a matter of looking up into the sky, which affords the best chance of spotting meteors with longer tails.
Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
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November 11, 2020 at 11:56PM
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Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks tonight - pennlive.com
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