{"id":22058,"date":"2021-08-09T09:10:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T09:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=99183"},"modified":"2021-08-09T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T09:44:08","slug":"how-to-see-the-2021-aurigid-meteor-shower","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-to-see-the-2021-aurigid-meteor-shower\/","title":{"rendered":"How to see the 2021 Aurigid meteor shower"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 09 August 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Although the Perseid meteor shower<\/a> steals the limelight, there are many lower rate showers active in August<\/span>\u00a0too.<\/p>\n

Active between 28 August and 5 September, the low-rate Aurigid shower has produced interesting activity outbursts in the past.<\/p>\n

On 31 August between 22:17\u201322:35 BST (21:17\u201321:35 UT) an alert has been issued for possible enhanced Aurigid activity.<\/p>\n

Read our complete guide to meteor showers<\/a> or find out what causes a meteor shower<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\""The\"<\/div>
The source material of the Aurigid meteor shower comes from comet Kiess (C\/1911 N1). Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The best time to see the 2021 Aurigid meteor shower will be on 31 August between 22:00\u201323:00 BST (21:00\u201322:00 UT)<\/p>\n

Typically exhibiting a ZHR (zenithal hourly rate) of 6 meteors per hour, this might rise to between 50\u2013100 meteors per hour.<\/p>\n

The zenithal hourly rate of a meteor shower is the total number of meteors you might expect to see during peak activity with absolutely perfect conditions, i.e. under clear, dark skies away from light pollution.<\/p>\n

Bear in mind that the window of enhanced activity for the Aurigids is short and a visual hourly rate is often lower than the quoted ZHR.<\/p>\n

Even so, a few recorded trails from the shower will make valuable observational evidence that the enhanced activity actually took place.<\/p>\n

During the enhancement window the Moon will be a 35%-lit waning crescent and won\u2019t rise until 23:44 BST (22:44 UT).<\/p>\n

The radiant \u2013 the region of the sky from which the meteors appear to emanate \u2013 is located in the constellation of Auriga<\/a>, the Charioteer, close to mag. +2.6 Theta (\u03b8<\/span>) Aurigae.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this will be low at 22:17 BST (21:17 UT), barely scraping the northern horizon. This will have an adverse effect on the number of trails seen, reducing the visual rate.<\/p>\n

How to observe a meteor shower<\/h1>\n
\""Leave\"<\/div>
Leave your telescope and binoculars at home. Meteor showers are best spotted with the naked eye. Credit: Isa Terli\/Anadolu Agency\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Meteor showers are a very easy astronomical event to observe as you don\u2019t need a telescope or any fancy equipment to do so. They are best seen with the naked eye, making it a great opportunity to get children and beginners excited about astronomy.<\/p>\n

Juts find a dark place away from the light pollution of towns and cities, provided it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n

If you want to observe from your back garden, turn off your lights so they don\u2019t spoil the view.<\/p>\n

Avoid using lights such as torches and mobile phones as this will spoil your dark adapted vision. If you need to see in the dark, use a red torch. If you need to look at your mobile phone, you may be able to turn your screen red<\/a> in the settings.<\/p>\n

It will take around 20 minutes for your eyes to dark adapt, but hopefully after a little wait you should start to see meteors shooting across the sky.<\/p>\n

Remember: clear nights are cold nights. You will be sitting still for a long time, so wrap up warm, bring something to eat and perhaps a hot drink as well.<\/p>\n

This guide originally appeared in the August 2021 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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By Pete Lawrence Published: Monday, 09 August 2021 at 12:00 am Although the Perseid meteor shower steals the limelight, there are many lower rate showers active in August\u00a0too. Active between 28 August and 5 September, the low-rate Aurigid shower has produced interesting activity outbursts in the past. On 31 August between 22:17\u201322:35 BST (21:17\u201321:35 UT) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Monday, 09 August 2021 at 12:00 am Although the Perseid meteor shower steals the limelight, there are many lower rate showers active in August\u00a0too. Active between 28 August and 5 September, the low-rate Aurigid shower has produced interesting activity outbursts in the past. On 31 August between 22:17\u201322:35 BST (21:17\u201321:35 UT)…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/22058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}