Will the Ursids bear a burst?

Spaceweather.com is reporting that the usually weak Ursid meteor shower may get a transfusion Saturday night, as the Earth passes through the debris tail of parent comet 8P/Tuttle. The peak is predicted for 21-22:00 UT December 22, which is unfortunately the afternoon for the US (though you should go out anyway when it’s dark).

When you watch, face north; the meteors appear to come from near the location of Polaris in the sky. Normally there are about 10 per hour, which is pretty weak, but who knows what’ll happen this time! Unfortunately again, the Moon is basically full at that time, so it’ll wash out any fainter meteors once it rises. Still, if it’s clear where you are (sigh, snow expected in Boulder) go out and look!

December 21st, 2007 1:30 PM by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff | 4 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

4 Responses to “Will the Ursids bear a burst?”

1. Jason Says:
December 21st, 2007 at 4:28 pm

Don’t be sad. I can’t see the things you talking about 9 months out of the year because I live in Seattle.
2. Wanzewurld Says:
December 21st, 2007 at 11:47 pm

First ever post here! Yeah, I’m caught up enough on the seasonal (Merry Christmas folks… Get over it!) rush to be able to look up from sunset on ’til the wee hours. Think I’ll set up the Canon S3 set on infinity focus, f5.6 and just keep on clicking off 15 (maximum the camera allows!) second exposures. I’ve been trying to capture a meteor for years – Maybe I’ll get lucky this time.
3. Michael Lonergan Says:
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm

Jason, may I commiserate with you? It’s the same here in my small town just north of Vancouver. No chance of seeing anything today, as it is raining/snowing here. We are just excited to see the sun here in the winter.
4. Nigel Depledge Says:
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:12 am

I went out about 22:30 local time (oh, wait, that’s 22:30 UT also!). The sky was clear enough (at least, as clear as it ever gets here after about a week with no significant rainfall and all the roads covered in salt) but totally washed out by the full Moon.

I did not spend more than about 30 minutes trying to see meteors, because they would have had to be extremely bright to be visible at all.

Still, I managed to get a 1-minute exposure showing Orion and Mars with some interesting lens-flare effects from the Moon. Plus some sky-glow from the street lights, of course. (My back garden is adequately dark because it borders on fields, but the front of the house is brightly lit by street lights).

About Bad Astronomy

Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.

The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.

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