Tips for Viewing Meteor Showers

By Jack Freeman


Meteor showers are instances which happen whenever the Earth's orbit travels right through an area which is really dense with debris, producing an increase in the number of shooting stars apparent. One can find annual meteor showers that come about throughout the year, some of which are more spectacular than the others, and tend to be named according to the Constellation from where they appear to eminate out of.

Since meteor showers are the outcome of the planet earth moving down its orbit right through a area of rock and ice, the actual meteors will appear to eminiate from a single constellation in the sky in the exact direction the Earth is currently moving in. Think of an automobile driving in a snow storm and the way all the individual snow flakes move past the front side of the car while you look out the front window. Doing so will give you a good idea of how a meteor shower will appear from here on Earth. Many of the meteor showers are caused by the Earth traveling into the dust that a comet leaves around on its voyage round the Sun.

Viewing meteors, along with meteor showers, is advisably is done with your eyes alone without any visual aid. While observing using a set of binoculars could possibly expose a few fainter meteors which you wouldn't have the capacity to view otherwise, the decreased field of view in reality will result in you to overlook more than you would without them.

Anyways the big brilliant meteors that one could observe using the naked eye are the most awe-inspiring anyhow. It's best to simply use your peripheral eyesight to view the entire sky, as the broad area where meteors are anticipated to fall will be known while the exact place of each meteor is only up to random probability.

Because virtually no optical tools are required, heading out to watch a meteor shower can be a much more laid-back type of stargazing in which, amateur astronomers and those who have next to no fascination with astronomy or the science involving meteors, past the wonderful show they create, will enjoy alike.




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