Local stargazers are in for a treat early Saturday morning and lasting through Sunday night for a never before seen meteor shower that could turn the sky into a storm of “light”
The “May Camelopardalids” could outdo the Perseid meteor shower seen annually in August.
Earth is passing through a belt of debris consisting of over 1,000 pieces of a comet that was first predicted 10 years ago by astronomer Peter Jenkins will peak at about 2am to 4am on Saturday, EST, according to Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environmental Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
The name , “May Camelopardalids” comes from the area in the sky where the shower will be most prominent, the corner of the sky with the North Star.
Astronomers warn however that it will be an all or nothing show. They predict that the comet that shed it’s debris may not produce the light show they expect.“If Comet 209P/LINEAR was a poor producer of debris, we’ll see nothing. But if the comet was more active 200 or 300 years ago, we’ll see a decent show. What happens this Saturday morning was determined a few hundred years ago,” Cooke told the Washington Post
The sky is expected to be clear of clouds in Sault Ste. Marie Friday night Saturday morning making for a great back drop for the celestial event.
