Free fireworks for credit crunch

November 5 is Fireworks Night in the United Kingdom when families burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, the man who tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. No doubt some will be set off this year to celebrate the US election too. But this year we will be able to enjoy credit-crunch fireworks for free, thanks to nature, if a prediction by leading meteor scientists comes true. The Taurids are an annual show that delivers regular bright meteors in low numbers for much of October and November. They are the widely spread remains of a once great comet. Expert David Asher, of Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, expects the Earth to run into a particularly dense part of the swarm of debris on November 5. It will cross another concentrated mass on the 12th, he says, but the Moon will then be much brighter in the sky, drowning out much of the display. Around 20 Taurids could be visible an hour at best, including a handful of fireballs, Asher tells New Scientist's website. In 2005, the shower produced some meteors brighter than Venus. If you have got kids or are planning a party, you might not want to rely too much on freebie fireworks - showers are notoriously unreliable and, in any case, tend to be at their best in the early morning hours. A fragment of the original comet, called 2P/Encke, is still seen circling the sun once every 3.4 years - the shortest period known. Its orbit was shortened by the gravitational influence of Jupiter. The comet hit astronomical headlines last year when a blast of solar wind detached and blew away its tail. Picture: A fireball photographed by Paul Sutherland. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • Skymania welcomes your comments on our stories! For more space reading, check out the Skymania stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Perseid meteors are gold medal event

After the spectacular opening fireworks of the Chinese Olympics comes one of nature's own finest displays - the Perseid meteor shower. In fact Earth began entering the dust stream that produces these shooting stars in July. But they will build to a peak in mid August when a single observer might see one or more a minute. The Perseids are dust particles ejected from Comet Swift-Tuttle which flare brilliantly as they enter the Earth's upper atmosphere and "burn up". They are one of the year's most reliable showers and a favourite for northern stargazers who can sit out and count them on warm summer nights. The meteors are expected to build to a rate of 80-100 an hour at maximum on 12 August - that is the number one might be expected to see with the unaided eye under ideal sky conditions if the radiant were directly overhead. The radiant is the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to diverge - an effect of perspective much like the way parallel lines of a rail track appear to converge into the distance. It lies in the constellation of Perseus which gives the meteor shower its name, but the meteors themselves can be seen in any part of the sky. The radiant is low in the sky when darkness falls but climbs steadily through the night and highest rates are likely to be seen in the early hours. Although the 12th is the night of maximum, it is worth watching on nights around that date too when rates are expected still to be very respectable. The waxing gibbous moon is low in the sky from mid-northern latitudes, setting around midnight. Conditions could therefore be ideal in the pre-dawn hours. The Society for Popular Astronomy meteor section reports that a Finnish meteor expert, Esko Lyytinen, believes that the Earth may encounter a denser meteoroid trail for perhaps an hour or so centred on 05h26m UT on 12 August. He suggests this could give another peak of 100-300, or even higher. The timing could particularly favour US sky-watchers. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • Skymania welcomes your comments on our stories! For more space reading, check out the Skymania stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Deluge of dust from Halley's Comet

The Earth is currently ploughing through a river of dust cast off long ago by Halley's Comet. First impressions indicate that they are putting on an excellent show. The cosmic debris reveals itself as bright meteors, or shooting stars, as particles stream into the Earth's atmosphere from space and vaporize in an instant. This shower is known as the Orionids because the meteors all appear to radiate from the direction of a point near the club being wielded by Orion, the hunter. The shower is long-lasting, with it first meteors becoming visible as early as October 2, and other being seen as late as the first week of November. It is one of two meteor showers left by Halley's Comet. The other is the η Aquarids in late April and May. Maximum of the Orionids occurred yesterday, October 21, when experts at the International Meteor Organization were forecasting zenithal hourly rates (ZHR) of 25 an hour - that being the ideal figure expected if the shower radiant was directly overhead and skies were perfectly clear and dark. In reality, conditions mean that a much lower figure than the ZHR is actually observed by a single observer. However, the Society for Popular Astronomy's hard-working Meteor Section director, Alastair McBeath, is today reporting a much stronger return for the Orionids this year, with double or more the predicted rate. From his observing site in Northumberland, in the north of England, Alastair counted 52 Orionid meteors in the space of three hours on the night of October 20-21. He also saw 31 other non-shower meteors, so it was a productive night. Alastair's quick calculations from this data suggest a "very healthy" ZHR of 50-60 for the Orionids. As Alastair is quick to point out in the SPA's excellent and free Electronic News Bulletins, this data needs to be confirmed by other observations, but the IMO's own website appear to back his own findings. Indeed, their live graph suggests a brief spell where Orionid rates peaked at around 120 meteors an hour. Alastair says that elevated ZHRs were already being reported from at least October 19 and high rates could continue for a couple more nights. The Moon is gibbous and bright and will drown out fainter meteors for much of the night, but if it is clear where you are, it could still be worth wrapping up warm and taking a look. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • Skymania welcomes your comments on our stories! For more space reading, check out the Skymania stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Great year to catch Perseid fireworks

Meteor watchers in the northern hemisphere are in heaven during the summer months when generally warmer nights coincide with a good period of meteor activity. The most famous annual shower, the Perseid shows its first signs in the next few days, building to a climax around August 12th. When at its peak, you should not have to watch a clear sky for very long before seeing one of its fast-moving "shooting stars". Conditions for observing the Perseids - so-called because the stream of comet dust that causes them appears to radiate from the constellation of Perseus - are excellent in 2007. Around maximum, when most people are keen to observe, the Moon will be out of the night sky and so will not drown out the spectacle with its light. This means, however, that it will be more difficult to view the shower's "early birds" in mid to late July. At best, the Perseids produce a ZHR, or zenithal hourly rate, of around 100 for a single observer. The figure is an estimate of the numbers that would be seen if the shower's radiant lay directly overhead. Don't expect to see more than a tiny handful during the early period of activity, however. There are other meteor streams active in July. According to the Meteor Section of the Society for Popular Astronomy, the Delta Aquarids are the strongest and show a peak ZHR or 15-20 arund July 28. Less active still is the Alpha Capricornids which may be seen from early July to mid August. Peak ZHR numbers only reach five or so most years, but when they do appear they are often bright and spectacular. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com