LC- Mark Graves
An outburst of meteors is expected to be visible in Thursday night skies. Just not for anyone living in Oregon. Mark Graves/The Oregonian
You may have seen some headlines telling you that a rare burst of meteors is set to streak across the night sky Thursday night. You may have made plans to brew up some cocoa, bundle up against the cold and settle in for a dazzling show of celestial beauty.
If you live in Oregon, you should cancel those plans, according to experts.
The alpha Monocertoid meteor shower, informally dubbed the “unicorn” meteor shower, occurs every year around Nov. 22, but usually produces just a few meteors. In 1925, 1935, 1985 and 1995, the shower put on a show, with outbursts of meteors for sky-gazers according to the American Meteor Society. Most meteor showers take place over several hours, if not days, but the Monocertoid shower usually lasts an hour or less. It gets its informal name from its origination point in the night sky, near the unicorn constellation, or Monoceros.
The shower is expected to hit sometime between 8:15 and 9:25 p.m. local time on the West Coast. Skies are expected to be relatively clear. But if you live in the West, it won’t matter.
“That’s because the (alpha Monocerotid meteor stream) radiant – the point in the constellation of Monocerotis from which the meteors appear to originate – is below the horizon at the peak time for locations west of Denver,” wrote Bill Cooke, who is the lead at NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office “That means people on the Pacific Coast will not see this outburst, even if their skies are clear. So if you live there and want to experience the shower, you need to go quite a bit east.”
Sorry to rain on your skygazing parade, Oregonians, but the good news is that hot chocolate tastes just as good sitting on your couch as it does shivering in the cold waiting for a meteor that will never come. If you want to catch a livestream of the shower, the folks at the Virtual Telescope Project will be broadcasting Thursday night.
-- Kale Williams
503-294-4048
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