Draconid meteor shower tonight. Here's what to expect in the night sky

The Draconid meteor shower will hit the night skies on Saturday and Sunday with maximum activity in the northern skies on October 8, reports said.

This offers skywatchers a chance to see meteors appearing to originate in the night sky from the direction of the Draco constellation, the reason the annual celestial event got its name.

This year however there is a dampener: the number of fireballs in the sky will be fewer and the full or nearly full moon may reduce your ability to watch them.


The Draconids result from Earth passing through the trail of ice and debris left by the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner.

NASA calls the Draconids an “occasional” shower – they are either in outburst, with a fair number of meteors, or are so few the casual observer would not notice them. In the years the parent comet is in our neighbourhood, it rains hundreds of meteors per hour.

The last time such a thing happened was in 2018. Since the comet has an orbit of 6.6 years a heavy shower is not expected. But, there could be pleant surprises as well. The brightness of a meteor is related to both its size and speed.

The Draconids are generally considered a sluggish and fainter shower. The faintness, NASA explains, is due in part to the fact that they are very slow for meteors, about 40,000 mph.