May Camelopardalis Meteor Shower

The new meteor shower, May Camelopardalis will be in view for the entire Northern Hemisphere tonight, but the best views will be in the middle latitudes. You'll be able to see some meteorites or "shooting stars" from 9pm through about 6am, but the best time to watch will be from 1am to 3am CDT.

This meteor shower is a result of the Earth passing through the debris and dust stream left from the comet 209P/LINEAR. The most interesting fact about this shower is that the debris stream isn't any new debris, it's actually left over from when the comet passed in the 1800's.

This shower gets it's name from the constellation Camelopardalis, which is near the north star, because it looks like the meteors are coming from this constellation.

Some forecasters are predicting that you could see up to 200 meteors per hour, and rivals the Perseids Meteor Shower in August.  You see the "shooting stars" when dust and debris enter Earth's atmosphere and begin to burn up.

Tonight will be a perfect night for the shower, with lows in the upper 40's, light winds, and little to no cloud cover. But, if you don't want to watch the shower outside, you can watch a live stream on NASA's website.