Comet 209P/Linear - May 2014 - Meteor storm of the Century

The list of major meteor showers hasn’t changed much in recent decades, but it has changed a little. Meteor showers are part of nature, after all, and the list of major showers shifts and changes slightly, as all things in nature do, with one shower or another becoming more or less exciting as the years pass. In 2014, though, an exciting new meteor shower might come on the scene. This possible shower stems from a comet – Comet 209P/LINEAR – discovered in 2004. Comet 209P/LINEAR passed near the sun in 2009 and will pass near it again in early May, 2014

On the night of May 24, 2014 – if predictions hold true – Earth might be sandblasted with debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR, resulting in a fine new meteor shower!

In 2012, meteor experts Esko Lyytinen of Finland and Peter Jenniskens at NASA Ames Research Center were the first to announce that Earth was due for a May 2014 encounter with debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR. Other meteor experts quickly confirmed this prediction and some did use the words “meteor storm.” The most recent calculations, however, indicate we might get a strong shower, but perhaps not a storm of meteors.

Will Comet 209P/LINEAR produce a meteor storm, or at least a strong meteor shower? As with all meteor showers, the only way to know is to go outside on the night of the predicted peak and see for yourself.

When to watch, and where?.

The peak night of the shower is predicted for May 24, 2014. Skywatchers in southern Canada and the continental U.S. are especially well positioned to see the meteors on the night of May 24, 2014. SETI has a global meteor shower FLUXTIMATOR, which estimates the shower’s hourly meteor count on the night of May 23-24, 2014 from your location (simply select your location from the drop-down menu options to find the best time to watch the starry sky for shooting stars).

The meteors will radiate from the constellation Camelopardalis (camelopard), a very obscure northern constellation. This constellation – radiant point of the May 2014 meteor shower – is in the northern sky, close to the north celestial pole, making this meteor shower better for the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere.

FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/mrstargazer.nation
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/STARGAZERNATION
Blogspot – http://stargazernation.blogspot.co.uk/