The May Camelopardalids meteor shower is nearly upon us, but for many parts of the United States, all hopeful stargazers might see is clouds. However, in the event of a rainy weekend, several experts suggest some ways to still experience the never-before-seen meteor storm.
Along the Northeast coast and Midwest, AccuWeather forcasts are predicting clouds and potential rain for Friday into Sunday night. This is bad news for stargazers and romantics alike, as the May Camelopardalids meteor shower is expected to take place soon after Midnight on May 23 -24. This shower will be unique in that it will be the first time that the Earth will experience it.
Nature World News reported earlier this week that the shower will happen as the Earth passes through the comet tail debris of 209P/LINEAR, a comet which just started to shed ice and rock as it flies closer to the Sun. As this is the first time the Earth will be passing through the comet's dust cloud, the resulting meteor shower - as space dust and stone burns up in the atmosphere - is expected to be impressive.
North Americans are favored for this shower, NASA reports, because the peak will occur between 2 and 4 am, the dead of night, when the sky is darkest. However, in the event of cloudy skies, which appears likely, Space.com's Joe Rao explains that tuning in to an "empty" FM radio station will allow you to "hear" the shower.
According to Rao, when meteorites vaporize in the atmosphere, they briefly ionize air molecules along their path. This path of ions can scatter and reflect radio waves, causing FM signals to briefly travel much farther than they normally would.
If you are tuned into a "dead" station during the meteor shower two nights from now, you will likely hear a small pop and then a random far-away station will tune in, but only for a few seconds.
Spaceweather Radio, another option, allows listeners to hear TV signals reflected by those same ion trails, interpreted as a "ping." Staying up late to see how many meteorites cross your sky? Simply count the pings!
If you miss the shower altogether, don't sweat it. NASA's Bill Cooke will have the video cameras of the Meteor Environment Office rolling as he heads out to see Camelopardalids for himself. Slow or compound exposure photography is also becoming increasingly popular, especially as some digital devices offer the techniques as automatic settings, so there are bound to be many pictures of the shower floating around the internet come next week.