Meteor Shower
There is a difference between a major meteor shower and a minor meteor shower. Minor meteor showers are events that produce little observable activity, usually less than ten meteors per hour, however they do occur at similar times during the year. It is also quite often that a Greek letter is used at the start of the minor meteor shower’s name.
For example, the Greek letter “γ” or Gamma is placed at the start of the shower’s name. The minor meteor shower occurring now, the (γ-Normids) Gamma Normids started February 25th and will continue to be active until March 22nd. The shower should be the strongest on March 14th, but don’t expect to see meteors shimmering all over the sky for this one is just a minor event. If you want to give this meteor shower a chance, try going out in the morning hours of March 14th and look for the constellation Norma. The bad news is that there will be little activity, but the good news is that a waning crescent Moon with only 1% of the Moon visible will be in the sky. This means that if there are meteors, one should be able to spot them in a dark morning sky. Norma is a small triangle of stars between Scorpius and Centaurus. Scorpius is best known for contrasting blue and yellow stars within it and it’s large size in the sky. Meteor shower viewers might see about six to ten meteors per hour during the peak and a few scattered meteors during the showers start to finish.
On an additional note, not all meteors that one observes have to be part of a specific meteor shower. There are plenty of sporadic meteors that streak across the sky each year. On any given night or morning a viewer may see about five meteors not associated with any particular event. These meteors are called “sporadic meteors” as they are capricious and can be seen virtually anywhere in the sky.
The next meteor shower of any real intensity is the Lyrids Meteor Shower that occurs in April. Please bookmark the site and join the mailing list because better and stronger meteor showers are on the way!
Keep your head up.
- Meteor Mark
