Meteor Showers

Meteor showers are fantastic things. So many shooting stars in a single night, it is just a sight to behold. I must admit, growing up I had numerous misconceptions as to what a meteor shower was like. I hope to maybe clear some of those up for you all.

Please look closely at the picture at the top. Note how it looks like all of the meteors are centered around a specific center point. This is not an optical illusion, that is how meteor showers actually happen. There is one central location that the meteors stem from during a meteor shower. The meteors can still appear at almost any point in the sky, but they all come from the same point regardless. Most news places will notify you of the center point of the meteor shower before it happens. If you watch this point, you are far more likely to see the shooting stars.

Now, in multiple fictional depictions, meteor showers are a sudden, short burst of an army of stars. This is not the case in real life. Most meteor showers last for hours on end, with a shooting star visible maybe every few minutes or so. There will be many stars, but they will be spaced out over a period of time.

The next meteor shower is the Leonids shower that will start on November 17 (this Thursday), after midnight. It should be visible from any of the 48 mainland states. Use the info from this post, and go see some of the greatest sights the night has to offer. Be sure to have some wishes ready!