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moon-free evenings for meteor watching tonight and tomorrow night. Oftentimes, this hard-to-predict shower doesn't offer much more than a handful of languid meteors per hour. But watch out when the Dragon awakes!
• This shower produced awesome meteor displays in 1933 and 1946 - with thousands of meteors per hour seen in those years. Even last year - in October 2011 - people around the globe saw an elevated number of Draconid meteors, even though the moon was bright that night. European observers saw over 600 meteors per hour in 2011.
• As of now, nobody is calling for the Draconid meteor shower to burst into storm in 2012. But you never know for sure with the Draconids, so it's worth watching out for on the moonless evenings of October 7 and 8.
• The forecast calls for the peak to occur at 2 Universal Time on October 8, 2012. For the central U.S. that translates to 9 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Sunday, October 7. If the prediction holds true, North America will get to watch the Draconids at their peak. For Asia, the predicted peak is around noon on October 8 - in daylight - so the evenings of October 7 or 8 will both work. Watch at nightfall and early evening because that's when the radiant point for the Draconid shower is highest in the nighttime sky.
• Locate Dragon's Eyes and radiant point for Draconid meteors
• Just keep in mind that meteor showers are notorious for defying predictions, either surpassing or falling shy of expectation, so you never know for sure.
(Continued on page 16)
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