South Taurid meteors in moonlight first weekend in November

The South Taurids are expected to be at their best late night on Sunday, November 4 and after midnight on Monday, November 5. If it’s clear on Friday and Saturday nights, it may worth checking out the Taurid shower on these nights too.

The other Taurid shower – the North Taurids – should add a few more meteors to the mix. But the forecast calls for the North Taurid shower to be raining down the most meteors a week from now, in the second weekend of November 2012.

The radiant points for the two November meteor showers – the South Taurids and North Taurids – both reside in front of the constellation Taurus the Bull. If you trace the paths of shower meteors backward, each shower appears to radiate from a certain point in the starry sky. As can be expected, the radiant point for the South Taurids is found in southern Taurus, while that of the North Taurids is found in northern Taurus.

As a general rule, the Taurid showers do not exhibit strong peaks. The two Taurid showers tend to overlap and to plateau in activity during the first few weeks in November. On any given night, these rather slow-moving meteors produce the greatest numbers in the few hours after midnight, perhaps up to 10 meteors per hour. Although a modest shower, the Taurids can surprise you with a flamboyant fireball or two!

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You can start watching the South Taurids at mid-evening, or before the waning gibbous moon rises over your eastern horizon. This evening, at 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., look for blazing planet Jupiter low in the east. It shines right in front of the constellation Taurus the Bull. The bright ruddy star Aldebaran depicts the Bull’s glaring eye. Note that Aldebaran sits atop a V-shaped group of stars that outlines the Bull’s face. And the star Elnath, Taurus’ second-brightest star, marks the tip of the Bull’s northern horn.

You don’t need to find Taurus to watch the Taurid shower, for these meteors streak all over the sky.
Taurus the Bull climbs upward during the evening hours and reaches its highest point in the southern sky after midnight. As a rule of thumb, the higher that Taurus appears in your sky, the more Taurid meteors that are likely to fly. Watch the South Taurids show their stuff this weekend. Because the Taurids are known for putting out bright fireballs, you still might see a few Taurid meteors on these moonlit nights.

- EarthSky