Observing at the Northern Hemisphere started as early as December 6, when one meteor every hour or so could be visible. During the next week, rates increase until a peak of 50-80 meteors per hour is attained on the night of December 12/13. By December 18 meteor shower
Before 1979, there were less than a dozen known sungrazing comets. As of December 2012, we know of 2,500. Why did this number increase? With solar observatories like SOHO, STEREO, and SDO, we have not only better means of viewing the sun, but also the comets that
If you’re planning to skywatch this December, this video will take you through some of the notable objects in the sky this month, including a meteor shower, large asteroids in the asteroid belt, and an array of constellations.Video courtesy of Space.comBeginning in
This year’s annual Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak tonight. Although Leonids can sometimes be seen at rate of more than thousands meteors per hour, a stream of debris from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle which orbits the sun every 33 years, is forecasted to display
Every year in late October or early November, Earth passes through comet Encke’s wake, resulting in the well-known Taurid meteor shower. Because of their occurrence in late October and early November, they are also called Halloween fireballs. They are named after
A chunk of meteor that exploded over Bay Area, California, was found in the backyard of Lisa Webber home on Sunday, October 21, 2012. Peter Jenniskens, a leading meteor hunter at the Seti Institute in Mountain View, confirmed that the space rock was indeed debris from
Police departments of Devon and Cornwall, UK, received hundreds of calls from people saying they had experienced an earth tremor and heard loud bangs around 16:15 BST on Thursday, October 18, 2012. Police staff in Devon’s Newton Abbot station also said floors
Lick observatory reported that a bright meteor fireball was seen streaking across the sky over the Bay Area, California on October 17, 2012 at 7:42 pm local time. They caught it on their security cameras.The meteor appeared to be slow-moving sporadic fireball meteor
The debris from famous Comet Halley strike Earth’s atmosphere usually in late October of every year. In 2012 the view of its debris on Earth, also called Orionids, will be seen most fully from October 20 – 22 and peak on the morning of Sunday, October 21. Forecasters
The annual Draconid meteor shower will peak overnight on October 7 and 8. Last quarter Moon on October 8 makes this quite a favourable year, as the Moon rises in late evening for the many northern hemisphere locations from where the Draconid radiant is circumpolar.
