A rare Meteor shower outburst possible this week Thursday night into Friday morning
If you look up on to the sky’s this Thursday night and Friday morning the 21st & 22nd of November 2019. The upcoming Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower could produce a meteor outburst, which means there could be multiple shooting stars per second streaming from the unicorn constellation.
There's nothing particularly magical about the Alpha Monocerotids. They appear to originate near the star Procyon, which is next to the constellation Monoceros, the Greek name for unicorn.
The shower is known for occasionally packing a dense flurry of activity into a brief viewing window. The meteors appear between November 15 through the 25th of each year, and peak around the 22nd. Several times a century, the shower treats sky gazers to an "outburst" of shooting stars that lasts less than an hour.
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Such an outburst is predicted for 2019. According to astronomers Peter Jenniskens and Esko Lyytinen, the Earth is on track to pass through a thick portion of the tail of the unknown comet that provides debris for the shower. The conditions are almost the same as they were in 1995, when the Alpha Monocerotids lit up the sky at a rate of 400 meteors per hour, which is approaching meteor storm levels. For that reason, the scientists are expecting shooting stars to appear in the same numbers this time around.
The outburst is predicted to happen at around 4:50am Friday morning here in Ireland with a duration of 15 up to 40 minutes maximum. This would be perfect and would be around 2 hours before dawn.
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THE MOON
The moon will not have any big effect either on viewing conditions as it will be a crescent moon only 23.1% full and rises just before 2am.
WEATHER FORECAST FOR IRELAND & THE UK
At present there look like there will be cloud around but some clear spells could also develop in places across Ireland something you can keep a eye on in the forecast over the coming days and update,
Chance look better across parts of the UK especially across parts of England and Scotland but not some much for Wales.
Kenneth from the Donegal Weather Channel.
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