Strong meteor shower possible (slight chance) November 21/22

[Mark Egan]

Intense Meteor Storm Expected from the Alpha Monocerotids

Circle the date November 21st on your calendar, when a brief but potentially spectacular meteor storm might light up the night.

www.skyandtelescope.com

See:

Light pollution map

to find dark skies

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

A meteor storm is a bucket list event for me. Unfortunately, it's expected to be snowing here Thursday. Hopefully Colorado will do it's usual thing and change its mind about the weather last minute.

 

[James K]

That would be cool to see...but same as @Marc R. O'Leary mentioned, forecast is showing snow that day.
Plus from home, where I'd be viewing, best I could do is look north-east...and that's right towards allot of city lights (low part of east & south-east are blocked by houses)

 

[Dan Robinson]

Thanks for posting this, I hadn't heard about it. Definitely looks like something worth driving a couple of hours to try and get clear skies. Doesn't look good for us in the Midwest as we'll be in between two big storms, with clear skies more than a day's drive away as models show now.

 

[Mikayla Norris]

Well dang. Plenty of places within a few hours of me out here in west Texas, but its supposed to be raining that night. Judging by the other responses, uncooperative weather seems to be a common theme.

 

[WyattKohl]

Are meteor showers only seen in certain areas? Kind of like say an eclipse. Or is it visible anywhere as long as its A. Not Cloudy and B. After dark (Obviously)

 

[Jeff Duda]

Are meteor showers only seen in certain areas? Kind of like say an eclipse. Or is it visible anywhere as long as its A. Not Cloudy and B. After dark (Obviously)

Meteor showers are pretty much a planet-wide event every time. It would be tough for a meteor shower to have a locality to it, as that would require the source asteroid/comet to have very recently passed by Earth, and if that ever happened, trust me, you would know about it.

This is the first I have heard of this particular meteor shower, and it sounds less consistent than the typical ones (Perseids, Orionids, Leonids, Taurids, etc.), but the A(Meteor)S has an article about it, too, so I believe it: Alpha Monocerotid Outburst in 2019?. Looks like it will be a tough one for me to catch given the progged storm system that will be passing through at the time.

 

[Mark Egan]

@Jeff Duda : meteor showers in general are a planet- wide event. In most cases, the rates are 75% or more of the maximum for 6-9 hours or so before and after the peak hour. However, meteor shower outbursts such as this one are very short-lived, usually 1-3 hours (in this case 20 min) so only people who are experiencing nighttime AND who have the radiant point of the meteor shower above the horizon have a chance of getting at least part of the outburst, and those that have the radiant point very low in the sky are likely losing 40-60% of the meteors (not to mention the ones lost to clouds/ light pollution, etc) The famous Leonid meteor shower outbursts (most recently in 1999, 2001 (2 of them) and 2002 (2 of them) are good examples.

For another perspective on this show, see: About the Upcoming (maybe) Alpha Monocerotid Meteor Shower Outburst… – Watch the Skies

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

Not looking good for viewing this event from Colorado.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Same for us here. Would need a 15 hour drive either nw or se for any hope of clearing.

 

[Mark Egan]

GFS cloud cover forecast for 11 CT. EURO forecast similar. Yikes.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Twitter users reporting this event was a bust. A few reports of a single bright fireball but no outburst. Anyone manage to get clear skies and see anything?

 

[Sean Mullen]

Twitter users reporting this event was a bust. A few reports of a single bright fireball but no outburst. Anyone manage to get clear skies and see anything?

Flew down this afternoon from New Jersey to Charleston, SC. Staying in the appropriately named Folly Beach. Saw one unrelated meteor. Felt just like being on the plains again for chasecation. Sigh.......

Sean

 

[James K]

In my part of Colorado it was cloudy & mix of snow/freezing drizzle. Not a chance of seeing anything, but doesn't sound like I missed much .lol.
(On a side note: freezing drizzle is truly awful stuff .. everything is now coated with a thin layer of 'glass' )
(It was a perfect night to light up the fireplace & string lights in Christmas trees though...)

 

[Glen Heinz]

It was a bust for me in SC. Saw about 4-5? Couple we're so very faint. Nothing big really. I was out for an hour+. I went out at 11:10 for ten minutes and back out at 11:32pm. Staying out till after 12"30am. My skies were clear and it was dark to my east southeast. On a scale of 1-5. The 5 being the best this it was a -1 for a meteor shower event. I can see just as many meteors on any given night. Final word it "Sucked". Have a good weekend everyone...