Draconid Meteor Shower Peaks Over Coral Gables, Orionids Cue Up

CORAL GABLES, FL — The Draconid meteor shower peaking this week over Coral Gables is one of three contributing to an October sky show. The Orionid and long-running Taurid meteor showers are also spitting out shooting stars.

If you’re looking for a diversion from all of the earthly ills colliding this year, head outside in the early evening and look up at the sky over Coral Gables through Saturday and scan it for shooting stars from the annual Draconid meteor shower.

It peaks Wednesday night, but you may see a few meteors in the coming days, weather permitting. The National Weather Service says to expect clear skies on Thursday and partly cloudy skies through Saturday.

The Draconid meteor shower is one of three producing shooting stars this month. It’s one of only a couple on the annual celestial calendar that are best viewed starting at nightfall. The nearly-full moon won’t rise until mid-to-late evening, so its glare won’t be a problem while you’re out casting your wishes upon a falling star.

Don’t expect too much from the Draconid meteor shower. It’s typically modest, producing only about 10 shooting stars an hour. But occasionally, Draco the Dragon — the radiant point of the shower — awakens and breathes fire in what’s called an outburst.

That happened two years ago over Europe, when the Draconids’ parent comet, 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, made its closest approach to Earth in 72 years. And in 1933 and 1946, Draco spit out thousands of meteors.

The stars don’t appear aligned for an outburst this year, although nothing’s ever certain when it comes to meteor showers.

Just as the Draconids wind down, the Orionid meteor shower is firing up. It started Oct. 2 and runs through Nov. 7, peaking around Oct. 21-22. You’ll want to head outside after midnight to see the Orionids — and don’t worry: the crescent moon will have set by then, so you won’t get any lunar interference.

Skywatchers can set their expectations a bit higher for the Orionids: The shower reliably produces about 20 meteors an hour at the peak.

You may also see shooting stars from the long-running Taurid meteor shower, active for longer than any other meteor shower of the year. It started Sept. 7 and runs through Dec. 10, peaking around Nov. 4-5. It's not particularly prolific, producing only five or 10 shooting stars an hour.

What makes this shooting star show unusual is that the meteors come from separate debris streams — dust grains left behind Asteroid 2004 TG10 and debris from Comet 2P Encke.

A first-quarter moon at the shower's peak may block out all but the brightest meteors. After midnight is the best time to look for meteors, which radiate from the constellation Taurus but can be seen anywhere in the sky.

A rare blue Halloween moon closes out the month, rising exactly halfway through fall. It’s called a blue moon because it’s the second full moon in a calendar month.

Like the Oct. 1 full harvest moon, the full Halloween hunter’s blue moon will look bigger and more orange than others as it rises over the horizon. It’s not a supermoon, a designation given when the moon’s closest approach to Earth — scientifically, when the moon is at perigee — in its monthly elliptical orbit coincides with a full moon.

What’s going on is a “moon illusion.”

“When the moon is low,” the Old Farmer’s Almanac explains, “it is viewed in relation to earthly objects, such as chimneys and trees, whose size and shape provide scale.”

The brain compares the moon with the size of other objects the eye sees, “and suddenly, the moon looks massive,” the publication says.

The full Halloween blue moon is a rare occurrence.

Halloween full moons occur every 19 years in what’s known as a Metonic cycle, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, and it won’t happen again until 2039, hence the cliche, “once in a blue moon.” Blue moons on Halloween happen only about three or four times in a century.