Saturday,  November 10, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 115 • 21 of 52 •  Other Editions

Meteors beginning late night November 10, moon and Venus before dawn November 11

• Starting late this Saturday evening - November 10, 2012 - watch for meteors in the North Tarurid shower. Then cap off a night of meteor watching by viewing the waning crescent moon with the dazzling

Courtesy U.S. Naval Observatory

planet Venus before sunrise Sunday, November 11.
• At mid-northern latitudes, you can watch for the North Taurid meteors to start flying through the sky around 8 to 9 p.m. However, the meteors will be few and far between at this early hour because the radiant of the meteor shower - the constellation Taurus the Bull - looms low in the east at this time. This year, the constellation Taurus is fairly easy to find because the brilliant planet Jupiter shines right in front of the Bull in November 2012.
• As Jupiter and the constellation Taurus climb upward throughout the evening hours, the North Taurid shower will produce more meteors. Regardless of time zone, Taurus reaches its high point for the night shortly after midnight, and it's usually in the wee hours after midnight that the North Taurids streak the nighttime with the greatest number of meteors.
• In a dark sky, you might see as many as 10 meteors per hour. Between midnight and dawn on Sunday, November 11, and Monday, November 12 should feature a decent sprinkling of North Taurid meteors. Although forecasters are giving the nod to Monday, you may see about the same number of meteors after midnight tonight (Sunday, November 11).
• You don't have to locate the constellation Taurus to watch the North Taurid meteors. These meteors fly through the starry sky in many different directions. But if you trace the paths of the North Taurid meteors backward, they appear to radiate

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