Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Wednesday, 25 August 2021 17:00

Monday 30th August to Sunday 5th September 2021

Tuesday 31st August see the peak of the lesser-known Aurigid meteor shower with a predicted zenith hourly rate of 50 to 100 meteors. You will need to be looking at the constellation of Auriga towards the north east between 10 and 11pm.

If you struggle to find the constellation, look further east and spot the Pleiades open cluster of stars first. Auriga has the 6th brightest star Capella at the top of it. Slightly down and to the left is another star called Menkalinan and the radiant point of the meteor shower is below that.

Fortunately, the Moon doesn't rise above the horizon until 11.45pm so it won't be producing any light pollution to spoil your view of any meteors. It would be a good idea to go outside a bit before 10pm to give your eyes time to become adapted to the dark.

I'm often asked about the difference between a meteor, a meteorite and a shooting star.

A meteor is a piece of space debris that is burning up in the Earth's atmosphere due to friction as it collides with air molecules. This typically occurs in a part of our atmosphere known as the Mesosphere, at an altitude of about 100Km.

If any of the meteor survives the fiery journey and actually makes it to Earth, that is called a meteorite. A shooting star is simply the colloquialism for a meteor, because that's what it looks like! A fireball is a brighter-than-average meteor.

Screenshot courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2021