Draconid Meteor Shower

This time of year sees the return of one of the least known, but often best, annual meteor showers (see image above). The October Draconids, sometimes known as the Giacobinids, are a meteor shower whose parent body is the periodic comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner.

The 1933 and 1946 showers were particuarly impressive with Zenithal Hourly Rates measuring in the thousands of meteors visible per hour, among the most impressive meteor storms of the 20th century. Rare outbursts in activity can occur when the Earth travels through a denser part of the cometary debris stream, as happened in 1998 and 2005. Rates suddenly spiked. A smaller Draconid meteor outburst occurred in 2011 although a waxing gibbous Moon reduced the number of meteors observed visually. Last years shower radar observations detected up to 1000 meteors per hour. The 2012 outburst may have been caused by the narrow trail of dust and debris left behind by the parent comet in 1959. This year, with a new moon could well be very good.