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• If you live at middle and far northern latitudes anywhere around the globe, this shower is well worth a try. Unlike many major showers, the radiant for the Draconids is highest up at nightfall, so it's best to watch for these meteors as soon as darkness falls, not in the wee hours before dawn.
• Most meteor showers are named for the constellation from which the meteors radiate on the sky's dome. The Draconids, however, are sometimes also called the Giacobinids, to honor the man who first sighted the comet that spawned this meteor shower.
• Michel Giacobini discovered this comet on December 20, 1900. Another sighting in 1913 added Zinner to the name of the comet, 21P Giacobini-Zinner. It is a periodic comet, which returns every 6 years and 4 months. Tracking this comet, and noting this October meteor shower, helped astronomers figure out how to predict meteor showers in 1915. The great Draconid/Giacobinid meteor storms occurred in 1933 and 1946. The comet returned in 1998 as well, and the Draconids picked up that year, but only to a rate of about 100 per hour. Then last year, 2011, observers in Europe saw over 600 Draconid meteors per hour.
• Why was the meteor shower so good in 2011? And why is it good in some years but not in others? Comet Giacobini-Zinner was at perihelion - closest to the sun - in 2011. Meteors are debris from comets, so when a parent comet is nearby, a good meteor shower is possible.
• In 2013 - approximately two years after the comet's 2011 perihelion (closest point to the sun) - there might be another meteor storm around the time of this shower's peak. Or there might not be.
• Perhaps the rates could go up to hundreds of meteors per hour on the evening of October 7, 2012. Or we might see only a handful of meteors per hour. Under normal conditions, when astronomers speak of a meteor shower peaking, it is similar to a weather forecaster saying, "The heaviest rain/snow is predicted for such-and-such hour." In other words, the prediction might not be precise, since nature is always unpredictable to a degree. But the rate of the meteors is higher during the peak of a meteor shower than on any other night.
• For tips on viewing meteor showers read this EarthSky article.
• For a taste of history related to this shower, go to the Astronomy Abstract Service from the Smithsonian and NASA and find a 1934 article called "The Meteors from Giacobini's Comet" by C.C. Wylie. It is an account of the famed meteor storm of 1933.
• If you want to try your luck, lie down on a reclining chair with your feet pointing northward. Find as much open sky as possible. How many Draconid meteors can you count in the moonfree skies these next few evenings?
• For binocular astronomers: See the planet Venus pair up with the star Rho Leonis of the constellation Leo before dawn on Monday, October 8, and Tuesday, October 9. Less than a week ago, Venus coupled up with Regulus, Leo's brightest star, and now Venus has moved on to join up with the star Rho Leonis. See our October 2 program for more details.