Supermoons and Meteor Showers Explained | How To Watch the Night Sky Year-Round - video Dailymotion

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A supermoon will light up the night skies, also, the Draconid and Orionid meteor shower peak during the month.   Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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00:00What's up for October?

00:04A supermoon takes over, the draconid meteor shower peeks through, and the Orionid meteors

00:10sparkle across the night sky.

00:13The evening of October 6, look up and be amazed as the full moon is bigger and brighter because

00:19it's a supermoon.

00:21This evening, the moon could appear to be about 30% brighter and up to 14% larger than

00:27a typical full moon.

00:29Why?

00:30Well, supermoons happen when either a new moon or a full moon coincides with perigee, which

00:36is when the moon is at its closest to Earth all month.

00:39So essentially, this is an exceptionally close full moon, which explains its amazing appearance.

00:45And what timing?

00:47While the supermoon appears on October 6, just a couple of days before on October 4 is International

00:53Observe the Moon Night.

00:55This is an annual worldwide event when moon enthusiasts come together and enjoy our natural

01:00satellite.

01:01You can attend or host a moon viewing party or simply observe the moon from wherever you

01:06might be.

01:07So look up and celebrate the moon along with people all around the world.

01:12If you luck into some dark sky between October 6 and 10, you might witness the first of two

01:20October meteor showers, the Draconids.

01:23The Draconid meteor shower comes from debris trailing the comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, burning

01:29up in Earth's atmosphere.

01:31These meteors originate from nearby the head of the constellation Draco the Dragon in the

01:35northern sky, and the shower can produce up to 10 meteors per hour.

01:41The Draconids peak around October 8, but if you don't see any, you can always blame the

01:46bright supermoon and wait a few weeks until the next meteor shower, the Orionids.

01:53The Orionid meteor shower, peaking October 21, is set to put on a spectacular show, shooting

01:59about 20 meteors per hour across the night sky.

02:03This meteor shower happens when Earth travels through the debris trailing behind Halley's

02:07Comet, which burns up in our atmosphere.

02:11The full duration of the meteor shower stretches from September 26 all the way to November 22,

02:17but your best bet to see meteors is on October 21 before midnight until around 2 a.m.

02:24This is because not only is this night the shower's peak, it is also the October new moon, meaning

02:31the moon will be between the Earth and the sun, making it dark and invisible to us.

02:37With a moonless sky, you are much more likely to catch a fireball careening through the night.

02:43So find a dark location after the sun has set, look to the southeast sky if you're in the

02:47northern hemisphere, or the northeast if you're in the southern hemisphere, and enjoy.

02:53Orionid meteors appear to come from the direction of the Orion constellation, but you might catch

02:58them all across the sky.

03:02Here are the phases of the moon for October.

03:04You can stay up to date on all of NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond

03:09at science.nasa.gov.

03:12I'm Chelsea Goed from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that's what's up for this

03:17month.

Supermoons and Meteor Showers Explained | How To Watch the Night Sky Year-Round

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