Tonight will be peak viewing for the first branch of the Taurid meteor showers, as fireballs are expected to pepper the sky on Sunday night, leaving skygazers with a great view of the show.
According to the American Meteor Society, the Southern Taurid meteors, which have been appearing in the sky since late September, will peak at around 8:47 p.m. EST on Sunday.
The Southern Taurids have a frequency of only five meteors per hour, but the shower is known for being rich in fireballs, a term for a meteor that appears brighter than Venus in the night sky.
Bill Cooke, the lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, spoke with CNN about the upcoming fireballs, sharing that meteors are normal in the night sky but out of the ordinary for many.
“You go outside, you see the stars, you see the moon, you see the planets — those are always there … but you don’t always see the meteors. Meteors are a transitory part of the night sky, and people get fascinated by that,” Cooke said.
Cooke says that the best time to glimpse a meteor would be after midnight in any time zone, though with the lower meteor count sky-gazers should be prepared to stay for a while in order to catch a glimpse.
NASA’s meteor cameras have been capturing only one or two Taurids a night, Cooke added.
The American Meteor Society says the moon will be nearly half full at 44% tonight, around the shower's peak, though it isn’t expected to affect the viewing.
“You should look away from the moon, but there’s no preferred direction — just try to take in as much sky as you can,” Cooke told CNN. “And use your eyes. You don’t want to use a telescope to observe a meteor shower — too small (of a) field of view.”
NASA shares that the Southern Taurids originate from the Comet Encke, which moves around the sun with the shortest orbit of all known comets in our solar system.
Enke was last spotted from Earth on October 22, and NASA shares its orbital period every 3.3 years.
While it moves through space, Enke leaves a trail of debris that appears as the Southern Taurid meteor shower when Earth’s orbit intersects its path.
If you miss tonight's peak, don’t worry, as the American Meteor Society shares that the Southern Taurids are expected to be blazing in the sky until the shower winds up on Dec. 8.