Next Meteor Shower
The next meteor shower on our meteor shower calendar is the Ursids. I believe that this shower will be better than the Geminids meteor shower of 2008. The Ursids are on schedule to peak December 22nd in the morning hours after midnight. Like last month the moon washed out most of the visible meteors, but the Ursids may be different. Stay tuned to MeteorBlog.com by bookmarking the site and put the Ursids on your calendar. The moon will be in a waning last quarter phase and will shedding less light into the night sky.
View the December Meteor Shower Calendar Here.
on Dec 16th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Why do you think the Ursids will be better than the Geminids? I saw almost 200 Geminids in less than 5 hours this year, it would be nice if the Ursids could top that.
on Dec 16th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Daniel,
The Ursids Meteor Shower is produced by the comet 8P/Tuttle that passed Earth in its 13.6-year orbit sometime in January of this year. For these reasons I believe there may be some improved viewing opportunities. I don’t believe the Ursids will produce a rate of 40 per hour, like you saw, that is awesome.
I just always like to stay positive for those who didn’t see many because of the moon. I was seeing about about 20 an hour for the Geminids, most were very faint and it was extremely cold, the Moon definitely played a part in my viewing experience.
The Ursids will be the next meteor shower that will be featured on the site. So get out there and let me know if you see more.
Keep your head up.
- Meteor Mark