Draco The Dragon

October 8th, 2011

Sit out in your garden and facing north this evening and stare up into the sky, astromoners are predicting that the Dranonid meteor shower could produce upto 1,000 meteors per hour, that makes it officially a storm. They will emerge form the constellation of Draco, hence their name – Draconids, though there are varying forecasts for the actual intensity. Ordinarily, the Draconid meteor shower is a “sleeper” with just about 10 meteors per hour. But this year, the Earth is forecast to pass through more of the comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner’s filaments than usual according to dust stream models used by scientists, These models simulate dozens to hundreds of meteors per hour, given this large range, the shower could be either quite a spectacle or a bit of a let down. ’21P Giacobini-Zinner’ is a periodic comet which returns every six years and four months.



One problem for potential spectators in the south of England is that it could well be cloudy when the peak is expected between 7pm & 10pm BST (1800 and 2100 UTC, these times varied a little in my research) but I am keeping one eye on the latest satellite forecasts in hope 😉

Update 1845: Err… complete cloud cover and no breaks looking at the satellite imagery, looks like a night in. 🙁

Update 2116: A clearing in the clouds and I saw ONE very bright Draconoid!
This photo doesn’t include the meteor, but it was taken in the same vicinity, about 67 degree elevation SSW.

Entry Filed under: General