Meteor Shower To Peak In NYC Friday: What To Know

NEW YORK CITY — Mother Nature's first major light show of autumn will peak over New York City skies Friday.

The best viewing for the Draconid meteor shower will be on Oct. 8 — if the weather cooperates, that is. Partly cloudy skies could obscure some of the prime-time viewing hours.

The shower favors early-evening viewing because that's when Draco the Dragon, the head of the constellation that is the shower's radiant point, stands highest in the sky.

It's one of the few meteor showers that peaks early in the evening, as most showers have prime viewing hours in the very late evening or early morning.

The Draconids mark the first major shower over the northern hemisphere since the Perseids in August.

While clouds might get in the way, the thin crescent moon won't interfere, experts say.

The shower is sometimes called the Giacobinids because it's produced by the Earth passing through the ice and rock debris left behind by Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. That fractured comet orbits the sun about every 6.6 years.

In rare instances, Draco the Dragon awakens and may spew a thousand or more shooting stars an hour in what's called a meteor storm or outburst. That happened in 1933, when 500 or more Draconid meteors were seen an hour in Europe. In 1946, between 50 and 100 Draconids were seen per minute in the United States, according to NASA.

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario in Canada predict Draconid outbursts in 2025 and 2029, but nothing out of the ordinary is forecast for this year's meteor shower.

With Justin Heinze/Patch