The Draconid meteor shower will probably be the primary meteor shower of autumn and October specifically, with a peak expected on 9 to 10 October.
The Draconids are considered hit and miss meteor shower that may provide a spectacular show, similar to the 660 meteors per hour seen in 2011, fewer than 10 meteors per hour, as was Nasa’s prediction for the 2015 Draconids. These meteors can appear to radiate from constellation Draco within the northern sky, from which they get their name, but chances are you’ll see Darconid meteors shoot across any a part of the sky.
The Draconids result from Earth passing through the trail of dust and debris left by the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which orbits the Sun every 6.6 years.
The Draconids are generally quite faint owing to their moving relatively slowly for meteors, in response to Nasa, entering the Earth’s atmosphere at just 40,000 miles per hour. This faintness could also be compounded by a full Moon rising around 4.55pm EDT on 9 October — the already faint and infrequent Draconid meteors could also be lost within the moonlight.
The second meteor shower expected in October, nonetheless, may provide a greater show. The Orionid meteor shower will peak between 21 and 22 October this 12 months, and will yield as much as 20 quickly streaking meteors per hour. They’re best viewed within the night sky after midnight, and might appear to originate from their radiant, the constellation Orion.
But as with the Draconids, Orionid meteors may be seen anywhere within the sky, and Nasa recommends on the lookout for Orionid meteors at 45 to 90 degrees from the Constellation Orion.
“They may appear longer and more spectacular from this angle,” a Nasa blog reads. “If you happen to do look directly on the radiant, one can find that the meteors will probably be short. That is an effect of perspective called foreshortening.”
The fast-paced Orionids are typically brighter than the Draconids, in response to Nasa, often leaving long, persistent trails within the sky as they enter the atmosphere at a searing 148,000 miles per hour.
The Orionid meteors are debris from the trail of Halley’s Comet, and so they are usually not the one ones — the Eta Aquarid meteor shower each May results from Earth passing through one other portion of comet Halley’s trail. Traveling a for much longer orbit than 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, Halley is not going to pass near Earth again until 2061.
