Comet Giacobini-Zinner
Comet Giacobini-Zinner, a fairly frequent visitor to the inner solar system, was captured by the Kitt Peak 0.9-meter telescope on Halloween Night 1998 (UT November 1st, from 02:07 to 03:40). North is up with east to the left.Since the comet was moving across the sky fairly quickly, and since color images are made by combining successive exposures through three different filters, a conventional combination would have either a streaked comet or a set of colored dots for each star. To avoid this, the complete sequence of images, lasting over ninety minutes, was specially processed. All frames for one color were combined with filtering that removed the moving comet: this stars-only image was subtracted from each comet frame, and the comet frames were registered and summed with further filtering to remove any residuals. The two images, with stars only and with comet only, were then added together to produce a single-color image in which neither the comet nor the stars was trailed. These three frames were then united in the final color picture, shown here. N.A.Sharp/NOAO/AURA/NSF

The Draconid meteor shower will peak on Saturday with an estimated 750 meteors per hour, which is sure to impress observers in the Middle East, north Africa and parts of Europe.

But observers in the United States won't be so lucky this year, as the meteor shower will begin at noon ET and will be strongest between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET, NASA said, making it poor timing for those who were hoping to see a stellar performance.

The timing of the shower favors observers in the Middle East, north Africa and parts of Europe, said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. He has predicted that the usually tame Draconids will be very active this year.

Draconid meteors come from Comet Giacobini-Zinner, which stream out of the northern constellation Draco. They are some of the slowest meteors around, as they hit the atmosphere at 20 km/s. With such a slow pace, astronomers said this reduces any danger from the Draconid meteors to satellites and spacecraft. It also makes them easy to see.

The Comet Giacobini-Zinner swings through the inner solar system every 6.6 years, leaving a narrow thread of dust, which forms a network of filaments over time that Earth runs into every year in early October.

Most years, the Draconids are faint. But NASA forecasters and others said Earth is heading for three or more filaments on Saturday, and that these multiple encounters should produce a series of variable outbursts.

Most years, we pass through gaps between filaments, maybe just grazing one or two as we go by, Cooke said. Occasionally, though, we hit one nearly head on - and the fireworks begin.

NASA Space NASA