Ursids meteor shower viewing guide

Just a day after the winter solstice, one of the longest nights of the year will feature a meteor shower! This isn’t a huge meteor shower like the Geminids or Perseids. But, expect 10 meteors per hour. Plus the skies will be dark. The moon is a waning crescent and will rise after 3 a.m. 

This meteor shower usually produces around 10 meteors per hour. But, it has been known to produce outbursts of 100 meteors per hour. An outburst is not predicted this year, but anything can happen with meteor showers. 

Usually the weather map is very busy in December, but this will not be the case across the parts of the U.S. that are cloudy most of the time in December!

A large area of high pressure will bring clear skies from the Midwest into the Northeast. But, there will be widespread clouds across the Southeast and also the western states. 

The meteor shower is triggered by debris from comet 8P/Tuttle. This comet orbits the sun every 20 years, and is as far from the sun as Saturn’s orbit. 

Even though it will be cold, we recommend you dedicate an hour to being outdoors. If you are serious about seeing meteors you, will need to spend this much time outdoors to let your eyes adjust. Plus, the meteor rates are highly variable. There may be no meteors at all for 30 minutes, then 3 in the matter of 30 seconds! Good luck meteor hunting. Thanks for reading. Just look up; you never know what you will see!