The meteor showers have characters, or so I feel.
Most obviously, the Leonid shower of November is choleric, roaring like the fearsome Lion of the constellation from which its fireworks explode. But only sometimes; in most years it is as meek as any lamb, so we might diagnose it as bi-polar (formerly more frankly called manic-depressive).
The Quadrantid event of January stands like a square gatehouse to the year, with front desk offering general information on meteor matters. It even, by taking its name from a constellation that no longer exists, provides a chance to explain names and radiants by an “exception that proves the rule.
The Ursid shower of late December, snowing feebly from the polar bear or arktos , is like a frail shivering enthusiast who insists on stumbling out into the frigid landscape for a star vigil through the longest night of the year.
The Orionids of October and the Eta Aquarids of May have an intellectual, an analytic aspect, because of what you have learned about their geometry. When you look up at them, you understand that you are inside a vast toroid or doughnut-shape that is the stream of particles following the orbit of Halley’s Comet. In October you are seeing them on the way in across Earth’s orbit, in May you are seeing them on their way out.
The Perseids of August are the darlings of warm summer nights.
And the Geminid shower that plans on coming to us in the night between Dec 13 and 14? Its character is stout. Strong like the Twins themselves, Castor the horse-tamer and Pollux the boxer. It has earned the reputation of most reliable (working in recent decades to outperform the summery Perseids). And a relatively recent discovery about it is that, unlike most meteor streams, which are dust from comets, it consists of rocky pieces from the body of an asteroid; which is why many of its meteors are fireballs.
It would be interesting to know whether Alastair McBeath, who is the expert on meteors that I am not, feels similarly or has any time for the fantasy that the showers have personalities.
Here is one of the group of illustrations about the Geminids on page 137 of Astronomical Calendar 2024, showing their radiant coming up into view in the early evening.:
As the caption mentions, a nearly full Moon is in the sky, so this is not the most favorable year for seeing many Geminids.
Hers is the corresponding scene in Astronomical Calendar 2025.
More favorable, with less competition from moonlight.
Home planet department
December 10, World Human Rights Day, passed without, I’m asshamed to say, the small contribution of action I usually try to make. YetL
But in the night of December 8, a load so enormous was lifted that you may have sensed it: fourteen years of the torture of a hundred and fifty thousand men, women, and even children in the underground prison cells of Damascus.
Many had not survived. One of these was Riad al-Turk, “the old man of Syrian opposition,” for whom our Amnesty International group in South Carolina sent dogged appeals year after yeaar.
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Well, I’m not so sure about the “expert” tag, as it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to observe some of these showers now, sadly. However, I did spot my first auroral display in nineteen years this September (and to the very night in September 2005 no less!), so perhaps there’s hope for a few more chances yet.
I wouldn’t disagree with your assessments here Guy, though I might add a couple of sneaky surprises from the Draconids, flaming with meteoric fiery breath from Draco’s mouth in October with their rare strong to storm returns, and the Alpha Monocerotids, with their still rarer, brief, strong returns (of which I was one of the few lucky viewers back in 1995, and I think possibly the only one in the UK). Like the Perseids on a late autumn night those were, for a short while.
My own views of the showers though tend to be through the prism of what the British weather allowed me to see of them in the past.
The Leonids I’d seen scarcely anything of at all, with often overcast skies, until the roaring great Leonid fireball night in 1998 under clearing skies, followed by part of the 1999 storm through a lot of hazy or thicker cloud, and part of the 2002 storm under clear skies. Thus my impression of them is coloured by those events, and not all the many weaker or unseen ones before and since!
The Quadrantids and Ursids, that start and end the northern meteor watcher’s year, usually pass behind overcast skies, unfortunately, although I was lucky in seeing part of a stronger Ursid return in the mid 1980s, and a good Quadrantid return in 1992. Hit or – usually – miss sums both of those up, as commonly hiding from view. Too shy for their own good.
The Orionids, as an early-hours-only shower, were always an especial challenge, and usually not as strong as might have been hoped by the time they could be seen, while of the Eta Aquarids, I’ve seen just the odd one or two in early May’s morning twilight. I do like the torus/doughnut concept of them both being parts of the same stream though, even if – thinking of doughnuts – Homer’s (NOT the ancient Greek poet!) “Doh!” is an apt exclamation for the actuality of how little might be seen of either source.
After the long, hot summer of 1976 brought too many cloudy skies, or I might have begun my meteor watching career by seeing the Lyrids in April that year, the 1977 Perseids were my first observed meteor shower, so they will always have a special place for me because of that, and the stronger returns that happened subsequently, especially the unexpected event in 1983, and those through much of the 1990s. Always a hoped-for summer highlight, and one with their own signature tune, as I believe John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” was based on the thrill of his viewing the shower from the clear mountain air of the Rockies back in the late ’60s or early ’70s (and not the drugs reference some have assumed since).
The Geminids I came to love because of their strength, overnight visibility and longevity near their peak rates for around twelve hours or more. December’s overnight weather is often poor, of course, but even a few breaks or a couple of hours of clearer sky at any time overnight will still give a welcome host of their meteors, with some luck and a nicely transparent sky especially. What’s even better is that they were anticipated to be fading away into the 21st century, whereas in reality, they’ve become even stronger than they were when I took up meteor watching all those years ago!
Alastair adds the Lyrids and Draconids, and strengthens the Geminids’ stoutness, but he does more than that with my meteor-shower “character” notion: builds on it something worthwhile, a meteor observer’s history in terms not just of statistics but of experience and feelings.
Thank you Guy. You lift the hearts of frail shivering enthusiasts everywhere.
From what I see in the news, the Islamist fighters who overthrew al-Assad in Syria have been doing the right things: assuring religious freedom, stabilizing and sustaining basic government services and the economy, working with the previous bureaucracy while promising justice for the perpetrators of crimes against humanity. I hope and pray that the victims of al-Assad’s brutality will find healing, and the Syrian people will enjoy peace, freedom, and well being.
I find encouragement in the fact that we never know what will happen, until it does. As Leon Rosselson sang in “The World Turned Upside Down”:
You poor take courage,
You rich take care,
The earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share,
All things in common,
All people one … .
It is difficult to know what to make of the current muddle in Syria. Yes, the Assad regime is finally gone, and thank God for that, but what will come after it. (Any commentary on this by Guy would be most welcome.)
Will the promise and potential of the Arab Spring finally be fulfilled, and will the legitimate aspirations of most of the people of Syria — both at home and in exile abroad — for a decent, representative, and responsible government be realized? And what, if anything, might the US and other powers do to assist in this process?
All the best to the long-suffering people of Syria, and may their dreams of a better life be realized.