Clear Whatcom skies mean you might see this week’s unicorn meteor ‘outburst’
Skywatchers say a meteor shower one night this week could be more like a downpour of shooting stars.
It’s an unusual event called the Alpha Monocerotids, according to a report in the Sky & Telescope magazine weekly newsletter.
This meteor “outburst,” which has been dubbed the unicorn meteor shower because it appears to originate in the Monoceros constellation, is slated to happen for about an hour starting at 8:15 p.m. PST on Thursday, Nov. 21 — and the forecast in Whatcom County is for clear skies.
Two researchers, one from the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center and another from the Finnish Fireball Network, have been keeping tabs on the obscure phenomenon, wrote amateur astronomer Bob King.
Several times over the past decade, the Alpha Monocerotids have reached meteor “outburst” levels of 1,000 meteors per hour, King wrote.
This year, observers could see 400 meteors in less than an hour, he wrote.
There’s one catch, King said in an online chat for Sky & Telescope readers: The peak outburst will occur when the center of the storm is just below the eastern horizon for viewers in the West.
“The radiant will be at or below the horizon during the shower peak which will greatly compromise the view,” King said. “But I still think it’s worth a look. Find a dark place with an open view to the east. Some meteors should climb above the horizon including earth-grazers that are typical when shower radiants are low or below the horizon.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 12:39 PM.
