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November's night sky is putting on its slow, bright show. The annual Taurid meteor shower is peaking — and this year the timing is unusually kind, with a new moon falling right between its two peaks and leaving the sky as dark as it gets. If you have ever wanted to see a meteor bright enough to outshine Venus, this is the week to look up.
The Taurids are not one shower but two, both fed by debris from Comet 2P/Encke, a comet about 4.8 kilometres wide. The Southern Taurids peak on the night of 4–5 November; the Northern Taurids follow on the night of 11–12 November. The showers are active for weeks — the Southern branch from 20 September to 20 November, the Northern from 20 October to 10 December — but these two nights are when the rates are highest.
Why this year is special
It comes down to the moon. The new moon arrives on 9 November — at 07:02 UTC, or 2:02 a.m. Eastern time — sitting neatly between the two peaks. During the Southern peak the moon is a slim waning crescent, only about 25% lit; by the Northern peak it is a thin waxing crescent, about 4% lit. Moonlight, the usual enemy of meteor watching, will barely be a factor.
The Taurids are also famous for quality over quantity. Each stream produces only about five meteors per hour under dark skies — ten per hour when the two overlap — which sounds sparse next to the Perseids. But Taurid meteors are slow, bright and long-lived, and the shower is known for fireballs: meteors so bright they can outshine Venus. One honest caveat: no fireball swarm is predicted this year. The next predicted swarm year is 2032.
How to watch
No telescope or binoculars are needed — in fact, they would only narrow your view. Find the darkest sky you can, away from streetlights, let your eyes adapt for at least 20 minutes, and look up. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Taurus, which rises in the evening, so they can appear all night — but the best hours are around midnight, when Taurus is high overhead. Dress warmly, bring something to lie on, and be patient: with only a handful of meteors per hour, the reward is the one bright fireball that makes the wait worthwhile.
And if the clouds spoil your night, November is not done: the Leonids peak on 16–17 November, in the early morning hours after the moon sets. But for slow, golden fireballs under a moonless sky, the Taurids' Northern peak on 11–12 November is the night to circle.
Sources: National Geographic, The Weather Channel. Internal: NASA Swift Telescope's Fiery Finale, The Ozone Hole Just Had Its Biggest Year in a Decade.