Most spectacular shooting star shower of 2023 to be seen in Hungarian sky

Don’t forget to go outside this Thursday evening in Hungary as you might miss this year’s most spectacular shooting star shower. Up to 120 shooting stars per hour can be expected that night.

Most beautiful shooting star shower in 2023

Up to 120 shooting stars per hour can be expected with the arrival of the Geminid meteor shower, which is expected to produce the most spectacular shower of shooting stars of the year 2023. The atmospheric phenomenon will be at its most spectacular in the evening hours of Thursday, Helló Magyar reports based on Svábhegyi Csillagvizsgáló.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are made of dust particles and rocks that hurtle through space at speeds up to several times that of a spaceship. When they hit the Earth, they create a long, brightly glowing ionic channel in the upper atmosphere, which we see as a shooting star, the statement reads.

As they write, although sporadic meteors are always visible, on certain days of the year, the Earth is hit by dust clouds that cause spectacular meteor swarms and star falls. The best known, but not the richest, of these are the Perseids in August. The Geminids are quite unique in this respect, because the shooting stars in the meteor swarm are, uniquely, not from a comet but from a minor planet grazing the Earth.

When to check for the shooting stars?

According to the statement, the best time to observe the Geminids meteor swarm this year will be Thursday evening. This is when the swarm’s radiant, the point from which the meteors’ orbits appear to originate, will be rising. The forecast is for maximum activity in the early evening hours, around 8 PM, with the radiant dying around 2 AM. On this night, the Moon’s thin, young crescent sets early in the evening, so it doesn’t cause any significant background light during the night.

Nevertheless, if you want to see a lot of shooting stars, it is advisable to get as far away from the cities as possible. It is advisable to choose an area from which you can see as much of the sky as possible without obstruction.

Featured image: Illustration/Pixabay

Read also:

• Budapest’s long-forgotten bridge right next to the Parliament
• Check out the fairy tale Los Angeles home of Barbara Palvin and Dylan Sprouse!