For die-hard fans, just before Christmas (see what I did there), we have a much smaller meteor shower than Geminids last week. Ursid meteor shower produces only about 5-10 meteors per hour, and under 93% full moon, this meteor shower will be quite a challenge.
17-26 December
Ursid meteor shower is the last of the year, and especially this year, conditions are challenging. If you are up to the challenge, the best conditions are just before dawn.
There is one dust trail passage calculated for 2021 December 22, 06h47m UT (λ⊙ = 270◦.33) with a ZHR of 27. This is close to the numbers given for the 2009/10/13/15 returns (Jenniskens, 2006).
The parent comet 8P/Tuttle passed its perihelion on 2021 August 28.
Mary McIntyre talks you through some professional tips to help you take better meteor photographs, and best of all, you don't need a high-end camera to do it.
The debris stream from Swift-Tuttle is quite widely dispersed so the Perseid Meteor Shower is active from 17th July until 24th August, with the peak occurring overnight on 12th / 13th August.
August gives us the opportunity to witness another spectacle in the night skies, not a comet this time, but a meteor shower, in this instance, the Perseid Meteor Shower, which begins in late July but peaks on the 11th, 12th and 13th of August.
