Taurid Meteor Shower – when it is happening, where to watch in the UK and what time is best to see it
THE annual Taurid Meteor Shower will be at its most visible on Bonfire Night this year, filling the sky with “natural fireworks.”
As fragments leftover from Comet Encke enter the earth’s atmosphere they burn up and create beautiful shooting stars. So where can you see the meteor shower in the UK and when is bets to watch it? Here’s everything we know…
When is it happening and when is the best time to watch it?
The meteor shower takes place every year between September and November, but in 2019 will be most visible on November 5.
Approximately five to ten shooting stars will be visible every hour throughout the night.
The evening will also enjoy a half-moon.
The best time to watch the show is after midnight, when the skies are darkest and unlikely to be littered with fireworks.
The phenomenon is dubbed “nature’s fireworks.”
Where is best to watch it in the UK?
The best place to watch any meteor shower is somewhere with clear skies – an unobstructed horizon with as little light pollution as possible, and ideally high up.
According to NASA: “Taurid meteors can be seen any time the constellation Taurus is above the horizon during the months of September, October, and November.
“The best time to look for Taurids is after midnight, when Taurus is high in the sky, and when the sky is dark and clear, with no moonlight to mask the fainter meteors.
“Given the behavior of past Taurid swarms, increased fireball activity may be seen during the last week of October and the first two weeks of November.”
What is a meteor shower?
A meteor showers is when fireballs appear to streak across the sky.
What is actually happening is pieces of debris rapidly burning up as they eneter the earth’s atmosphere.
Many of these showers are regularly repeated.
The Orionids shower is debris from Halley’s Comet, a huge chunk of ice orbiting the Sun.
According to the Greenwich Royal Observatory: “What we are witnessing when we see a shooting star is a small piece of interplanetary matter, called a meteor, entering the Earth’s atmosphere and ‘burning up’ at a height of about 100 km.”