Another Quick Meteor Update

Author: Tom* Comments(3)

A visit to the Comets group on Yahoo, yielded the link to the NASA’s object simulator.

Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 crosses the Earths orbital plane on May 31, since it is leading us we should be able to see some meteor action! How much I don’t know.

Apparently the crossing is to occur at 13:45 UT, 31 May 2006. It looked like we might be able to see something in the way of meteors through the first 10 days of June. That’s just speculation on my part, but I will be out there looking.

Funny how my luck runs, a week off and rain every day. Go back to work clears off, but gets dark too late to get up early. Now I have yet another week off coming and rain is forecast every day again, showers though. Oh well my day will come!!!!!!!

3 Comments so far

  1. Ian Musgrave on May 29th, 2006

    Over on the Meteorobs group they are predicting minimal, if any action from 73P. If you are thinking of looking, the radiant is located in eastern Bootes near the fourth magnitude star Delta Bootis. The best time to view possible activity is near midnight when the radiant is highest in the sky. This shower is well placed for viewing in the northern hemisphere as it passes through the zenith for those located at 40N latitude. Expect maybe one or two per hour, but who knows, something might happen. The real showers should be due in 2049 :-)

  2. monica on May 29th, 2006

    I live in Auburn California, which way would i look in the sky to see them, thank you for this website its pretty cool.

  3. Ian Musgrave on May 30th, 2006

    For most northern hemisphere locations, go out around midnight (when the radiant will be highest) look west, then up. Around 2/3rds of the way to the Zenith is the bright orange star Arcturus. Above that you will see a delicate curve of faint stars, the Corona Borealis. The radiant for the shower will lie approximately between Corona Borealis and Arcturus.