Draconid Meteors Peak as the Moon Nears New

The Draconid meteor shower peaks around 01:00 UTC on October 9, which is the evening of October 8 in the Americas (7 p.m. at UTC-6). The Moon is less than two days from new, so moonlight will not wash out the sky. Look toward the northwest, near the head of Draco the dragon, where the meteors seem to start.

Draconids are dust from comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which circles the Sun every 6.6 years. Most years the shower is weak, about 10 meteors an hour. Earth has crossed denser streams of that dust, though: in 1933 observers in Europe counted 500 meteors per minute. Unlike most showers, the Draconids are best in the evening, because the radiant is high in the sky as darkness falls.