Maine Nature News

Maine Meteor Shower Calendars
Compiled, edited and adapted for Maine by Frank Wihbey

All times and dates in Eastern Time

    The Maine Meteor Showers Calendars, provided by the Maine Nature News for recent years, are available by clicking on the links below.   They give the official names of the showers; the predicted days of the activity period  of each; the expected date (and where applicable) the time of the shower's peak (maximum rate); and the Lunar phase near peak (to help predict moonlight interference with your observations).
    Also included are ratings by several different measures:

• Gramer's Rating - a relative measure combining hourly rate of meteors, consistency from year to year and speed. 
• Relative Speed of Meteors - a relative measure of observed speed based on actual physical speed.  The impression of speed will vary depending on the angle at which meteors approach in your view of the sky. 
• Zenithal Hourly Rate "ZHR", an idealized hourly rate under conditions of perfectly clear, completely dark skies, with the shower radiant overhead.
• Typical Hourly Rate "THR" - partly subjective measure based on assumption of observation in suburban night skies lit by a quarter moon.

  Times listed are in the format most useful to Maine, i.e. all times are given in Eastern Time (Standard or Daylight Savings, as appropriate).  Some almanacs and calendars are casual about this time change, and/or give the data in Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time).

  2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007

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