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John Homenuk

Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, here’s how to see it

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The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight into the early morning hours of Thursday, and astronomers are suggesting the potential for up to 100 meteors per hour.

There’s something humbling about laying in the grass and watching meteors streak throughout the night sky. The Perseid meteor shower provides arguably the best show of meteors in the night sky each year. Its annual occurrence during warm summer nights makes it easily the most comfortable meteor shower to watch of the bunch of “major” showers, many of which fall during the colder winter months. This year, a very dim moon will make viewing even more ideal during the peak of the meteor shower.

Why is the moonlight so important? To put it simply, it upstages the light of the meteors streaking throughout the sky. When the moon is full, you may still see meteors — but the smaller, dimmer activity (which is typically more frequent than the bright ones) is blocked out by the bright light of the moon in the sky. This year, the thin crescent moon is not expected to interfere at all.

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John Homenuk

PM Update: Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight

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Showers and thunderstorms, some currently warned as severe with strong winds, are progressing through the area this afternoon. Please see our currently active thread for the latest information on those weather hazards. 

The annual Lyrid meteor shower, which often features some notably bright meteors in the night sky, will peak tonight. Although the meteor shower has been trending toward peak for the past few days, with some sightings reported in our local area suburbs, the shower reaches its technical maxima tonight. The meteor shower is active from April 15th through April 25th annually, with peak days varying. The visibility of meteors also varies year to year based on sky and moon conditions.

This year, ideal viewing conditions are anticipated with a waxing crescent moon setting during the early evening hours of the peak days. This will leave especially dark conditions for meteor viewing. While last years Lyrid meteor shower was generally unimpressive, the variance from year to year leaves meteor-watchers very hopeful for this years result.

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John Homenuk

Lyrid meteor shower approaching peak this weekend

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The annual Lyrid meteor shower, which often features some notably bright meteors in the night sky, will enter its peak this weekend. The shower won’t technically peak until the early to middle part of next week, but an increase in visible meteors is expected beginning this weekend. The meteor shower is active from April 15th through April 25th annually, with peak days varying. The visibility of meteors also varies year to year based on sky and moon conditions.

This year, ideal viewing conditions are anticipated with a waxing crescent moon setting during the early evening hours of the peak days. This will leave especially dark conditions for meteor viewing. While last years Lyrid meteor shower was generally unimpressive, the variance from year to year leaves meteor-watchers very hopeful for this years result.

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John Homenuk

Major meteor shower possible tonight: Things to know

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A few days ago, we detailed the upcoming Camelopardalid meteor shower. The day (and night) is finally here! With the new, potentially major meteor shower peaking Friday Night into Saturday morning, there are still many questions to be answered. We do our best to answer them, provide additional information, and inject our weather knowledge into the potential amazing celestial event — to try and forecast whether or not our area will be able to view it.

The Basics

The new meteor shower was discovered and timed by scientists last year — and was known to be possible before that. It is occurring, as most meteor showers do, as the Earth passes hrough the debris path of a comet. For instance, Earth has been passing through Comet Swift-Tuttle debris to create the Perseid meteor shower for thousands of years.This time, it’s Comet 209P/LINEAR which is causing the meteor shower — and Earth has never crossed paths with its debris before. When Earth passes through the debris fields of comets, the bunches of rock (of varying density) crash through the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up as they do so and creating an amazing spectacle known as shooting stars, or meteors.

Accordingly, on the night of Friday May 23rd into Saturday May 24th, scientists have been able to pinpoint the interaction between Earth and Comet 209P/LINEAR’s debris field. The debris field just so happens to be quite dense, and this has scientists wondering if the meteor shower just may reach “storm level” — or at the very least provide a very strong meteor shower.

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