- The Draconid meteor shower will peak on October 9 of this year
- At the peak, there could be up to 10 meteors flying across the sky every hour.
If you’re a fan of stargazing, be sure to mark Monday night in your diary.
The Draconid meteor shower will peak on October 9, giving you the perfect opportunity to see UK shooting stars.
While most meteor showers are best seen in the early hours, Draconids differ in that they are best seen in the afternoon, after dark.
At the peak, experts predict there could be up to 10 meteors flying across the sky every hour.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Draconid meteor shower, including how and when to see it from your area.
The Draconid meteor shower takes its name from the constellation Draco. It is best seen in the afternoon, just after sunset. Meteors fly in all directions across the sky when they arrive.
The Draconid meteor shower will take place from October 6 to 10 this year, but will peak on Monday, October 9.
Meteor showers occur when Earth travels through a cloud of comet debris.
In this case, the Draconid meteor shower comes from the remains of comet 21 P/ Giacobini-Zinner.
It takes its name from the constellation Draco, which is its radiant point, the point in the sky where meteors appear to come from.
Draco is a long, winding constellation, easily visible to people in the northern hemisphere, in the northern sky.
It can be found above the Big Dipper and Polaris, the North Star.
The Draconids are best seen in the northern hemisphere, although it is still possible to see them in the southern hemisphere, especially if they are close to the equator.
This is because the shower’s radiant point almost coincides with the head of the Draco constellation in the northern sky.
The rate of meteors during the peak of the Draconid shower depends on where in the comet’s trail it crosses Earth’s orbit in a given year, according to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
A fisherman watches a meteor during the Draconid meteor shower over Howick Rocks in Northumberland in 2021
The observatory describes the Draconids as “variable,” meaning you can never be sure what kind of light display you’re going to get.
“In recent years, the Draconids have not produced any particular burst of activity,” Royal Greenwich Observatory states on its website.
“However, in 1933 and 1946 the Draconids produced some of the most active displays of the 20th century.”
If you want to see it, it is best to go to an area with a good, clear view of the stars.
Avoid busy cities as they have a lot of light pollution, and instead head to the dark countryside if you can.
“Ensure there are no direct light sources in your eyes, so you can fully adapt to local conditions and ensure the faintest meteors are visible,” advises the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
‘There is no advantage to using binoculars or a telescope; Simply look up with your own eyes to enjoy the widest possible view of the sky.
Unfortunately, the Met Office says the forecast “doesn’t look particularly good” for Monday night.
“The forecast is currently for widespread cloud over much of the UK overnight Monday into Tuesday, although this cloud cover will be thinner in the south of the UK,” a spokesperson told MailOnline.
“There could also be occasional disruptions in places like the east of Scotland.”
If you miss the Draconids, luckily there are other meteor showers gracing our skies this year.
The Orionids will appear on October 21, followed by the Taurids (November 12) and the Leonids (November 17).
WHY DO METEORIES MAKE SOUND?
Meteors are fragments of space rock that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up as a result of the friction created when they pass through it, appearing as bright rays of light in the sky.
In addition to light, this friction also generates sound: some meteors create a “sonic boom” by breaking the sound barrier, similar to a fast-moving airplane.
Since meteors can reach more than a hundred kilometers in altitude and their sound waves travel much more slowly than the light they generate, the sonic boom is often not heard until many minutes after the flash is seen.
The burst will also be loud enough to be heard from Earth if the meteor is particularly large, enters the stratosphere below an altitude of about 30 miles (50 km), and explodes as a bolide or fireball.
In addition to the burst, some stargazers claim to have heard whistling and buzzing noises at the same time as seeing a meteor.
This is because meteors also emit very low frequency radio waves, which travel at the speed of light.
These are inaudible, but they can cause physical objects on the Earth’s surface to vibrate and produce a sound that our ears can interpret as a hiss.
Sometimes stargazers can hear a meteor as it creates a “sonic boom”, similar to how a fast-moving airplane does (file image)
