Draconid Meteor Shower 2023

The Draconid Meteor Shower

This year the Draconid meteor shower will be in our night sky from the 6 – 10 October; a very small window of activity. During this time, it will peak on the evening of 8 October into the early morning of 9 October.

What is a meteor shower?

Now you might of heard or even seen a meteor shower before, but what is a meteor shower? Well it's where you can see a high amount of meteors (sometimes called shooting stars, if you are feeling wacky) in the night sky. So, what's going on here?

In space, Earth is travelling around the Sun, but we aren’t the only thing flying around out there. In fact there are lots of these things called comets, which are large collections of ice and dust. They orbit the Sun as well, but because they are made of ice, as they approach the Sun, the heat from our star vaporises the comet’s ice. The comet leaves a vapour trail because of this. Not only that but as the ice disappears this releases all the dirt and carbon inside leaving a dust trail.

When we see a meteor shower on Earth, it’s because our planet is moving through the trail left behind by one of these comets. The meteors you see are actually tiny pieces of this comet burning up as they travel down through the Earth's atmosphere. Even though they appear really bright some of these meteors can be as small as a grain of sand.

Why is it called the Draconids?

The Draconid meteor shower is called this because these meteors appear in the night sky around the constellation of Draco. This constellation is huge which is good for us because it makes it easier to spot! To find Draco simply look for the asterism the Plough (part of the constellation Ursa Major). Between that and Ursa Minor you will find the “tail” of Draco the Dragon. The meteors will appear to radiate from a point in this constellation near the head of Draco.

The comet associated with the Draconid meteor shower is called 21P/Giacobini-Zinner and it orbits the Sun about once every 6.6 years. Even though it's such a long orbit compared to Earth, we still see a light show every year because of the trail it leaves.

At the peak of the Draconids, the moon will be in its waning crescent phase. This is good because it will appear dimmer allowing us to see more (last years Draconids took place on a full moon greatly reducing what could be seen). With ideal viewing and weather conditions, we’ll be spotting 10 meteors an hour this year.