Possible Andromedid meteor outburst Sunday night

Anyone who braved the intense nightly cold over the weekend was likely rewarded with some amazing shows in the starry sky. Not only was there a spectacular display of the Northern Lights, thanks to an intense geomagnetic storm, but we were also treated to a rare event — an outburst of the Andromedid meteor shower.

The Andromedids are a mostly-faded, often-overlooked meteor shower that was very intense back in the late 1800s, when it was formed by the breakup of Biela's Comet. The number of meteors gradually dropped since then, as the Earth swept up more and more of the debris field year after year. However, in 2011 and now again this year, the shower has undergone an outburst — when the number of meteors suddenly and dramatically increases.

According to SpaceWeather.com, Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said "Meteor rates [Saturday] night were near 20 per hour (ZHR). The shower could increase in intensity [Sunday] night, so we hope observers (especially Europeans) will be alert for meteors."

The outburst started on Saturday night, and was detected by the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR), which is run by the University of Western Ontario, and uses ground-based radar stations to pick up meteors as they hit the Earth's atmosphere. Real-time tracking of meteors is available online courtesy of NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network, which shows the concentration of meteors in the sky and the 'radiants' of the specific meteor showers. This Andromodid outburst isn't identified because the shower is mostly gone, but it's the bright patch over the constellation Cassiopea (the 'W' or 'M' shaped constellation in the northern sky).

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Whether or not the outburst lasts another night is uncertain, however if the skies are clear and you want to check it out, the best time to try will likely be between local midnight and local sunrise (after the moon sets). As always with meteors, whether you see them and how many you see will depend on the sky conditions in your area, with cloudy skies and light pollution definitely spoiling the view. Check the Clear Sky Chart for your local conditions, and with the frigid temperatures out there, stay warm!

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