STARS: Like shooting stars?
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, you’ll want to make a concerted effort to look skyward tonight, when a brief bevy of them could streak out of the east-southeast sky. This is when the Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower is due to reach its peak. And while you may have never heard of this meteor shower, this year you might want to check it out.
The expectation is that Earth will plow through a dense, albeit narrow trail of dusty material left behind by a comet. When tiny pieces of dust or debris called meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere, they heat up and glow, producing the effect popularly known as “shooting stars.”
Based on new calculations made earlier this month by two reputable meteor experts, a brief meteor “outburst” is expected late tonight. Outbursts are very short but intense meteor showers, and this year, it’s looking likely for this kind of activity.
“Had we known in advance about this meteor display, we certainly would have included a blurb about it in our 2020 edition,” notes Farmers’ Almanac Managing Editor, Sandi Duncan, adding “but we still want to get the word out for people to be ready to see it.”
The Farmers’ Almanac suggests that to best see these fiery streaks of light, try to get away from city lights, bundle up, and face toward the east-southeast while fixing your eyes on no single part of the sky. The expected meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, but if you trace their paths backwards, they should all seem to emanate close to Procyon, a bright yellowish-white star in the constellation Canis Minor.
For East Coast observers, the peak should come at 11:50 p.m.
Meteor activity should quickly rev-up after 11:30 and conceivably could be all but over by 12:10 a.m. It will be that quick, the Almanac says. “If nature is in a show-off mood, you might end up seeing dozens of shooting stars to wish on. If the display falls short, and you don’t try too desperately hard, you might still come away seeing one or two really beautiful meteors.
“All we need now, is a reasonably clear sky.”
