A great number of meteor showers occur regularly every year (you could say that in a sense they are cosmic clocks). Let us put together some background information and then create a table depicting the most spectacular of the meteor showers along with what to expect from each one.

Meteor Showers and Clockwork Regularity

Here is a list that details the more spectacular meteor showers and the best viewing dates and times for what promise to be some of the most spectacular meteor showers/storms to be seen in 2009. It is Important to note that; there are a number of meteor showers that occur annually. In fact some meteor showers are persistent to the extent that they turn up every year for thousands of consecutive years.

Meteor Showers

In essence; meteor showers are created by bursts of high velocity debris entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

Velocity and Friction – Because this debris is travelling so fast the friction heat generated as a result of the debris colliding with the atoms and molecules that constitute the Earth’s atmosphere will cause the meteor to heat up to such an extent that it begins to vaporize and emit the observable short lived streaks of light that we call a meteor (or days gone by a shooting star).

Burn Up or Impact – Although; small meteors tend to burn up completely, a few of the larger rock-based meteors will not burn up entirely and so eventually impact the Earth’s surface. That is if they don’t explode beforehand.

Meteor Shower Naming Conventions – Traditionally; meteor showers have been named after the constellation from which they appear to originate.

Meteor Shower Radiant – All member meteors of the same shower travel parallel paths and at the same velocity. Thus; from the viewer’s perspective, when these meteor showers enter the Earth’s atmosphere and begin to burn up, they will appear to have come from the same point of origin in the sky. This is what is known as the meteor showers “radiant”. You can see this is in Fig. 1 above.

Observation Platforms – Due to the “light pollution” generated by human habitation (towns and cities) the best vantage points for viewing meteor showers is very much the same for viewing other astronomical events. Thus; the perfect viewing locations will be atop mountains or in the desert.

Realistically however; not many of us will be willing or able to go to the extreme of travelling to these far out of the way places. Fortunately there are a number of meteor showers that will be observable from practically anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (see Table 1 Meteor Shower Calendar 2009 below for peak viewing times).

Additional Meteor Related Resources Include – http://www.theskyscrapers.org/, http://www.amsmeteors.org/, http://www.astropics.com/, http://www.pkim.org/, http://www.spaceweather.com/, http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/, http://www.heliotown.com/