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If the skies are clear these subsequent few nights, take just a few moments to lookup. You simply is perhaps fortunate and catch a glimpse of a spectacularly shiny meteor — a Taurid meteor streaking throughout the sky.
While most meteor bathe shows final a few week, the Taurids have maybe the longest period of general visibility. Meteors from this explicit stream start showing in mid-October and proceed into proper on mid-November. Nov. 5 by way of Nov. 12 is historically the time-frame when these gradual and majestic meteors are at their greatest.
Unfortunately, in 2025, this show has — thus far — been severely hindered by the presence of a superb moon. The moon turned full Nov. 5 with brilliant moonlight flooding the sky much of the night, and pretty much washing out all but the brightest meteors. Thereafter, however, the moon has been setting later in the evening and has been slowly waning in brightness. Last quarter is this coming Wednesday (Nov. 12) and thereafter the moon will be a progressively thinning crescent.
So, with each passing night, the moon has been rising about an hour later and the window of dark sky hours (prior to moonrise) has opened a little wider. This Wednesday night (Nov. 12) is probably the best night to watch, as there will be about 4 hours of dark, moonless skies to look for Taurids. Moonrise will come just after midnight, early Thursday morning.
Each evening, up until the time the moon comes above the horizon, up to about 15 meteors may appear per hour. They are often yellowish-orange and, as meteors go, appear to move rather slowly. Their name comes from the way they seem to radiate from the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which sits low in the east a couple of hours after sundown and is almost directly overhead by around 1:30 a.m.
Meteors — popularly referred to as “shooting stars” — are generated when debris enters and burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. In the case of the Taurids, they are attributed to debris left behind by Comet Encke, that are noticeably bigger fragments than these shed by different comets, which is why this meteor stream often delivers just a few unusually shiny meteors referred to as “fireballs.” Encke’s has the shortest recognized orbital interval for a comet, taking solely 3.3 years to make one full journey round the solar. Many fireballs reported within the months of October and November belong to this stream. A area mark of the Taurids is that they’re among the many slowest of meteors, encountering Earth at solely 17 miles (27 km) per second.
Related: Astronomer captures 2 meteors slamming into the moon
The associated meteors seem to diverge from a spot on the sky simply to the south of the Pleiades. So, if throughout these subsequent few nights, you catch sight of a barely tinted orange meteor sliding quite lazily away from that well-known little smudge of stars, you possibly can really feel positive you have simply caught sight of a Taurid.
Don’t neglect the Leonids!
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The Taurids are not the only significant meteor display in November. We can also look forward to the famous Leonid meteors, which are due to reach their peak on Tuesday morning, Nov. 18. The moon will be just a couple of days from new, making this a very favorable year to watch for these ultra-swift streaks of light that will appear to emanate from out of the Sickle of the constellation Leo. The Sickle is rising in the northeast around midnight and will stand high in the south-southeast at the break of dawn. Unlike the Taurids, the Leonids last less than a week, with maximum hourly counts near 10, though this varies from year to year. Stupendous meteor storms are possible around the years when the Leonids parent-comet, 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, sweeps through the inner solar system. The comet’s next visit to the sun’s vicinity is not due until the year 2031. Many meteor experts believe that we’ll be in line for another major outburst of Leonids in November 2034. That’s nine years from now . . . so mark your calendars.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope and different publications.
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