2023 Meteor Showers

[Hiramite]

Looks like some decent viewing conditions this year with respect to the moon phases.

 

Lots of good meteor shower and viewing info here.....

https://www.space.com/39469-best-meteor-showers.html

 

We can post all of the individual meteor shower discussions in this thread......or make separate ones.

[Hiramite]

Lyrids this weekend.

Zero chance of seeing any here.

[MaineJay]

Socked in yesterday. Booooo

[Hiramite]

Looks like the moon will cooperate for the Perseids around August 12/13, let’s hope sky conditions do as well.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Hiramite

[Electric_CityWx]

@Hiramite I'm hoping the clouds break up overnight to watch Perseids!

Heading to my sisters' house, outta the city at 3am hoping to see a few.  She was out on the deck watching at 2am this morning and saw a dozen before heading to bed.

Hoping for breakfast and a show in the sky tomorrow morning!

[Electric_CityWx]

The clouds broke up!

By the time I got to my sisters', we had a good 2 hrs of watching.  Saw quite a few until around 5:15, by 5:30 the sky was starting to get bright.  Was a nice show!

I told her about Geminids coming up Dec 13th, so we're planning another viewing party on her deck lol

[Hiramite]

Great skies for viewing but only looked up for a few minutes here and there.  I did manage to see one bright one.

Here's an interesting article on the subject....

https://www.space.com/perseid-meteor-shower-storm-2028

[Electric_CityWx]

Wow, so 2028 will be a real show!  Crazy!  Can't wait!

[Hiramite]

Looks like some pretty good viewing conditions (moon wise and sky conditions) for viewing this year's Geminids in much of the MW and NE US on Wednesday Night/Thursday morning.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-geminid-meteor-shower/

[jbrumberg]

Orion rising last night.   I was hoping to hopefully capture an "early," errant Geminid.

 

[clm]

THE BEST METEOR SHOWER OF THE YEAR: It's happening tonight. The best meteor shower of the year is expected to peak on Dec. 13-14 with no Moon to spoil the show. Rural observers could see hundreds of Geminid meteors and more than a few fireballs. This is also the most mysterious meteor shower of the year. New research shows that the shower's parent, 3200 Phaethon, is not what we thought it was. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

 

 

Asteroids are not supposed to make meteor showers. Unlike comets, they don't have tails and they don't spew meteoroids. Yet 3200 Phaethon was different. In 2009 and 2012, NASA's STEREO spacecraft caught 3200 Phaethon sprouting a tail when it passed close to the sun. Apparently, intense solar radiation was blistering meteoroids off 3200 Phaethon's rocky surface. Astronomers dubbed it a "rock comet," and the mystery was solved.

Or was it?

Astronomer Qicheng Zhang, lead author of the new paper, was never convinced. For one thing, the Geminid debris stream is massive (1013 kg), while the tail of 3200 Phaethon is puny, providing less than 1% of the mass required to explain the Geminids.

"The tail we see today could never supply enough dust to supply the Geminid meteor shower," says Zhang.

Zhang, Battams, and colleagues decided to take a closer look. Using coronagraphs on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), they monitored Phaethon as it passed by the sun in 2022. Color filters on the spacecraft revealed no dust or rock. Instead, Phaethon's tail is made of sodium gas.

[Hiramite]

Meh.  I went out from 10:10 to 10:30 and saw four (two groups of two).  One very faint, the brighter ones had short tracks.  No biggies/fireballs.

Then popped out at 6AM and saw one in the first minute then called it quits after 5 minutes.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Hiramite