Astronomers say a meteor shower is possible Monday night into early Tuesday.
The Griffith Observatory, which is not open Monday, notes "the moon is new and will not interfere with this exceedingly rare opportunity to observe a likely meteor storm." The shower is expected to be visible in the northeastern sky. The direction for knowledgable stargazers: look "about 10 degrees north of the brilliant star Arcturus." Peak time here is 10:15 p.m.
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On Monday night, Earth will travel through the debris trails of a broken comet named 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann or SW3, for short, according to a NASA blog.
"Will a new #meteorshower, the tau Herculids, put on a spectacular show the night of May 30-31? Maybe, maybe not," NASA's planetary science division tweeted.
Will a new #meteorshower, the tau Herculids, put on a spectacular show the night of May 30-31? Maybe, maybe not. But if you have clear weather, the moonless sky should be beautiful for stargazing anyway.
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) May 27, 2022
Details: https://t.co/GzrnnIBkMD
All about meteors: https://t.co/SFZJQwdPxf pic.twitter.com/ShKZmc24Mc
Those in North America have the best shot at seeing the shower at about 1 a.m. on the East Coast or 10 p.m. on the West Coast, according to the NASA blog. The meteor shower can also be viewed via the Virtual Telescope Project.
"We can't be certain what we'll see," Lee Mohon wrote on NASA's Watch The Skies blog. "We can only hope it's spectacular."
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