By Vicky Kapur

UAE residents are promised spectacular meteor showers this weekend, with sky-watchers set for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness a brilliant display of cosmic power in a never-before-seen meteor shower this Friday and Saturday.

A Nasa scientist says that, as our planet moves through streams of dust left behind by a comet passing our cosmic neighbourhood two centuries ago, there will be an incredible show to be witnessed as Earth ploughs through debris shed by Comet 209P/Linear, as these extra-terrestrial particles burn up in the planet’s atmosphere.



According to Nasa’s space.com, the possible new meteor shower could send up to 1,000 shooting stars per hour streaking through the sky.



“This potential new shower is so new that astronomers aren’t sure what to expect,” narrator Jane Houston Jones said in a skywatching video released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “Predictions run from less than 100 meteors per hour up to an unlikely but possible meteor storm as high as 1,000 per hour.”



The Camelopardalid shower will make its initial appearance during the night and morning of May 23 to May 24, Bill Cooke, who heads the space agency's Meteoroid Environment Office, says.

The Camelopardalid shower could well turn out to be a storm, radiating from the constellation of Camelopardalis, the 18th largest constellation in the night sky. Camelopardalis is a large but faint constellation in the northern sky, and was first spotted by a Dutch astronomer named Petrus Plancius in 1612 (or 1613).

It was later documented by German astronomer Jakob Bartsch in the 1960s. The Camelopardalis constellation depicts an image of a giraffe that resembles a camel and a leopard, hence its name. Some older astronomy books give an alternative spelling of the name, Camelopardus.

How, when and where to watch it in Dubai



Location: Bab Al Shams Desert Resort and Spa



Event starts: 21.00pm on Friday, May 23



Event ends: Sunrise on Saturday, May 24



Dubai Astronomy Group (DAG) will be holding a public viewing to mark this “potentially once in a lifetime” event. “Predictions suggest that a new meteor shower will be seen on the 24th May as Earth is expected to cross the debris trail left by comet 209P/Linear. Based on professional forecasts, this meteor shower could turn out to be a unique meteor storm. A meteor storm could see dense outbursts of bright multiple meteors and provide in excess of 1,000 shooting stars an hour during its peak. Lowest expectation would be 60-100 meteors an hour. You won’t want to miss this,” the DAG says.



Visitors will have the chance to use club telescopes to view the event, as well as at other celestial objects including Saturn, Mars, double stars, globular clusters, nebula and other deep sky objects. In addition, the Moon rises in the morning, just before sunrise, in a close conjunction with the planet Venus. The event will feature live presentations and videos about the night sky plus featured online broadcasts to the wider international astronomy community.



The event is working in collaboration with Astronomers without Borders and will feature live links between Dubai and California.



The event is also supporting a global broadcast from Slooh Telescopes. Slooh operate a network of robotically controlled telescopes which are used by its worldwide membership for astronomy imaging and observing. Slooh is a major worldwide outreach facilitator of public astronomy and hosts regular online events. DAG is a listed partner.



The event will also include periodic Live Google+ Hangouts On Air and will be available on YouTube for those unable to attend in person.

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