There is a possible meteor storm from a comet that broke apart in 1995. There could be 1000 or more meteors per hour. North America is well placed if the timing is right. This has a slim chance of happening but if it does it would be worth seeing. Still, I will be keeping an eye on the sky.
https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2022/05/26/the-tau-herculid-meteor-shower-possible-outburst/
Thanks for the heada up.
Kewl, tnx!
thanks.
saw the predictions last week.
there will be a New Moon, and here we
have good weather so it could not be better.
Cool, that would be a first for me.
Keep in mind the “storm” designation is based on if you are located where radiant is at zenith, and skies are dark dark (e.g., panhandle ok dark).
Reason I am clarifying is you may well see much less than 1000 in an hour but still have witnessed a meteor storm. Your observations are corrected for how dark it is at your site (limiting magnitude), radiant altitude, etc. and then converted to what you would have seen under dark dark skies if the radiant had been at zenith.
Look here for more facts. AMS
Take a peek tonight, you never know. May be a cousin Eddie “it’s a bust” or may be a special event.
I love this stuff but I think it’s gonna be cloudy here. Bummer.
i just saw a glint around 10:20 Central time.
From the sky map, when facing South look nearly straight up to see the region of expected activity. There is a big bright star right there in the middle of the sky, that is Arcturus (it appears reddish to me, but i have light pollution and not a dark dark sky).
Unfortunately they don’t identify Arcturus in this sky map, but it is just below and to the left of the Big Red Dot. It is the brightest thing up there and will be a good marker to get you in the right location.
Sky and Telescope has a good interactive map that shows Hercules slightly to the North East of Arcturus.
https://skyandtelescope.org/interactive-sky-chart/
[Edit, 11:20, saw a few more glints and Arcturus is not directly straight up anymore, it has moved about 10d to the West. It will be 15d to the West at midnight, which is supposed to be the max meteor viewing time.
12:20, i saw 2 long sparklers about 10 minutes apart at 11:40 and 11:50, then it was a big nothin burger. Hercules was directly overhead at midnight.
No storm here. In about 1 hour of watching I saw 18 meteors that were probably from the shower. Most were faint, short and relatively slow. Better than nothing but surely not impressive.
18 meteors in 1 hour is really not too bad at all for a “normal” night of meteor watching.
I only saw 3 or 4 in about 30 minutes, and only 1 of them looked to trace back to the Tau Herculid radiant.
Firefly population seems robust, though. Normally like to see them but can be annoying when meteor watching.
Amazing ...Simply amazing...
www.youtube.com/embed/rwcBaG-S7UA
Hazy last night, no stars, and even (presumably) Arcturus was barely visible peeking through the occasional thinner patches of haze.
last night was better than a “normal” night for meteors,
but you have to grab a chance when it appears.
Clear Weather, a New Moon, and Meteors
does not happen often.
Please realize that we are so isolated in this solar system of ours. All of the debris we get is not only from local asteroids, but not even remotely close to what lies way far out in the Oort Cloud (the ring more than one light year out at the solar system’s edge). To think that all of our asteroids that have changed life on earth and killed the dinosaurs was only from what was immediately from the Late Heavy Bombardment. It’s crazy that we still get stuff.
quote:
“It’s crazy that we still get stuff.”
might be REALLY crazy
when we get LOTS of it.
And we can STILL die from it!
Here is a snapshot of how much stuff is nearby. The 2022 in first column shows how many have only been discovered this year. So there are tons that we don't know about yet. That's a lot of rocks whizzing by every week.
 |
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2022 KE5 |
2022-May-26
|
1.1 LD
|
17.1
|
9
|
| 2022 KV |
2022-May-27
|
6.2 LD
|
11.1
|
23
|
| 2022 KZ1 |
2022-May-27
|
9.6 LD
|
22.5
|
21
|
| 7335 |
2022-May-27
|
10.5 LD
|
13.1
|
1078
|
| 2022 JU1 |
2022-May-27
|
15.1 LD
|
6.1
|
36
|
| 2022 KK3 |
2022-May-28
|
2 LD
|
10.6
|
8
|
| 2022 KA |
2022-May-28
|
14.8 LD
|
8.6
|
34
|
| 2022 JY |
2022-May-28
|
15.1 LD
|
11
|
66
|
| 2022 KF3 |
2022-May-28
|
3.6 LD
|
20.9
|
14
|
| 2022 KT |
2022-May-28
|
9.5 LD
|
6.7
|
12
|
| 2022 KJ5 |
2022-May-29
|
7.4 LD
|
13.7
|
38
|
| 2022 KK5 |
2022-May-29
|
3.5 LD
|
8.9
|
34
|
| 2022 KC1 |
2022-May-29
|
4.1 LD
|
11.4
|
29
|
| 2021 KO2 |
2022-May-30
|
3.1 LD
|
14.8
|
9
|
| 2022 KD1 |
2022-May-30
|
4.6 LD
|
10
|
21
|
| 2022 KO3 |
2022-May-30
|
0.8 LD
|
9.7
|
9
|
| 2022 KQ5 |
2022-May-30
|
0.1 LD
|
7.3
|
5
|
| 2022 HT2 |
2022-May-30
|
11.9 LD
|
15.7
|
224
|
| 2022 KW4 |
2022-May-30
|
1.8 LD
|
5.4
|
8
|
| 2022 KB1 |
2022-May-31
|
4 LD
|
17.3
|
33
|
| 2020 DA4 |
2022-Jun-01
|
5.5 LD
|
8.9
|
26
|
| 2022 KK4 |
2022-Jun-01
|
19.5 LD
|
7
|
41
|
| 2022 KP3 |
2022-Jun-02
|
3.4 LD
|
7.2
|
7
|
| 2022 KN5 |
2022-Jun-02
|
4.2 LD
|
18.1
|
21
|
| 2022 KO5 |
2022-Jun-02
|
16.7 LD
|
5.8
|
24
|
| 2022 KD2 |
2022-Jun-03
|
6.4 LD
|
6.8
|
46
|
| 2022 KH1 |
2022-Jun-03
|
12.5 LD
|
9.6
|
28
|
| 2022 KC4 |
2022-Jun-03
|
5.2 LD
|
11.5
|
19
|
| 2022 KJ3 |
2022-Jun-03
|
17.8 LD
|
7.7
|
31
|
| 2022 KZ5 |
2022-Jun-04
|
8.3 LD
|
9.1
|
16
|
| 2022 KB3 |
2022-Jun-06
|
2.9 LD
|
11.9
|
16
|
| 2021 GT2 |
2022-Jun-06
|
9.5 LD
|
7.5
|
50
|
| 2022 KV3 |
2022-Jun-07
|
17.8 LD
|
3.9
|
24
|
| 2022 KV1 |
2022-Jun-08
|
11.2 LD
|
15.2
|
60
|
| 2018 LU2 |
2022-Jun-09
|
14.8 LD
|
10.7
|
16
|
| 2022 KM1 |
2022-Jun-09
|
16.3 LD
|
11.1
|
43
|
| 2022 KC3 |
2022-Jun-10
|
6.4 LD
|
4.6
|
17
|
| 2006 XW4 |
2022-Jun-12
|
5.9 LD
|
7.3
|
49
|
| 2022 GU6 |
2022-Jun-12
|
3.2 LD
|
8.4
|
88
|
| 2015 WP2 |
2022-Jun-26
|
18.5 LD
|
11.4
|
3
|
| 2022 JE1 |
2022-Jul-03
|
8.6 LD
|
5.6
|
74
|
| 2021 EL4 |
2022-Jul-05
|
19.8 LD
|
9.5
|
25
|
| 2015 OQ21 |
2022-Jul-12
|
18.3 LD
|
6.6
|
9
|
| 2022 KY4 |
2022-Jul-17
|
15.9 LD
|
7.6
|
92
|
| 2021 OT |
2022-Jul-17
|
16.5 LD
|
11.2
|
20
|
| 349068 |
2022-Jul-19
|
17.6 LD
|
22.9
|
756
|
| 2017 RX2 |
2022-Jul-24
|
17.2 LD
|
14.2
|
17
|
| 2016 CZ31 |
2022-Jul-29
|
7 LD
|
15.6
|
129
|
|