uranologist , get your telescopes at the quick . by and by this calendar week , the annual Draconids meteor shower will be visible across the night sky . The event will last from October 6 - 10 but for acme wake , put October 8 in the diary . This is when the exhibitor is expected to be at its brightest .
The Draconids are a chemical group of ( relatively ) slow - prompt meteors that watch over on the can of the Jupiter - syndicate comet 21P / Giacobini - Zinner . They move at64,000 kilometers(40,000 mile ) an hr , which seems incredibly tight but is actually fair slow in meteoroid - full term . ( Some travel speeds of257,000 kilometers(159,600 mi ) per hour , which is 45 km or 28 geographical mile everysinglesecond . ) This means the meteor are faint and frequently burn up out before they have the chance to hit the Earth ’s atmosphere . Only the very large generate enough heat energy to make them visible to the human oculus .
The shooting star get their name from the constellation Draco , Latin for " flying lizard " , where they appear to grow from . The localization of this constellation ( far magnetic north ) stand for the best and easiest spots to watch them from are in the Northern Hemisphere in place like Canada , the US , and various countries in Europe and Northern Asia . Though they can also be observed from the Southern Hemisphere provide you are not too far from the equator .
The Draconids are also a jolly young exhibitor , only celebrate for the first time less than a 100 ago . Most display lean to farm five or so meteor an hour but in 1933 and 1946 , the storm were specially spectacular and spectators reported seeing up to several thousand meteoroid per time of day . unluckily , we should n’t expect a repetition of 1933 or 1946 in 2018 – astronomers prognosticate storms of around 10 or so shooting star an hour .
The good news is that this year , they will co-occur with a new Moon so the sky will be extra dreary and ripe for stargazing . What ’s more , on September 10 , 2018 , the 21P / Giacobini - Zinner passed the pointedness closest to the Sun in its intact orbit ( the perihelion ) , which may mean more spectacular meteor showers than usual . To catch them in the proficient light source , watch in the early evening .
The Draconids wo n’t be the only meteors light up the sky this October . The ongoing Orionids meteor exhibitor ( September 23 to November 27 ) is expected to peak later this month on October 21 , get up to 20 meteors every time of day .
