Meteor Showers

On the night of November 13, 1833, the astronomer Denison Olmsted was awoken by his neighbors and ran outside to a sky alight with over 72,000 meteors an hour -- roughly 20 a second.  This spectacular meteor shower became the subject of several woodcuts, and I find them delightful, so I will put them here.

Meteor shower season is almost upon us!  Each shower is named for the constellation radiant point (i.e., Leonids radiate from the constellation Leo, etc.)

Leonid shower peaks around November 17
Northern Taurids visible through December 10
Southern Taurids visible through November 30, and
Orionids peaks during the night of November 28

Unfortunately, none of these meteor showers are quite expected to reach the extreme that Olmsted saw in 1833 -- but it's always a good excuse to go watch the night sky.