The February Eta Draconids meteor shower
Key facts
- Peak
- around 4 February, only in rare years
- Active
- a few hours around 4 February, when it appears at all
- Rate at peak (ZHR)
- usually none; a weak outburst in 2011
- Speed
- about 36 km/s
- Radiant
- Draco (near the star Eta Draconis)
- Parent body
- An undiscovered long-period comet
Dates shift slightly from year to year. This year's peak is in the events calendar, and the meteor-shower planner shows how high the radiant climbs from where you live, night by night.
Most meteor showers are linked to a comet we already know. The February Eta Draconids are the reverse: a shower that announced the existence of a comet nobody has yet found.
On 4 February 2011, a network of low-light video cameras in California, set up to measure meteor orbits across the whole sky, recorded six meteors over about seven hours that all came from the same point near Eta Draconis, a star in the Dragon's body. Six meteors sound like nothing, but each was filmed from two or more sites, so its exact orbit could be calculated. The orbits were almost identical, and radio observers in Finland picked up activity at the same time.
A comet that could hit Earth. The orbits showed that the meteoroids belong to a long-period comet, one that takes at least many decades, and perhaps centuries or more, to circle the Sun. Crucially, its orbit crosses Earth's orbit. The gravity of the planets pushes on dust and comets in the same way, so if the dust can reach Earth, the comet itself could one day be steered into Earth's path when we pass that point on 4 February. That makes the unseen parent a potentially hazardous object. Showers like this are valuable early warnings: they reveal where dangerous comets travel before the comets themselves are spotted.
Why it is so rarely seen. A long-period comet leaves narrow trails of dust, one for each pass round the Sun. Earth meets a trail only when the trail happens to lie exactly across our path, so activity comes in brief bursts separated by many quiet years. Weak returns were forecast for later years, but the shower remains elusive.
What to expect. In most years, nothing at all. The radiant in Draco is circumpolar from the UK, meaning it never sets, so northern observers are well placed if a forecast suggests a return. Meteors would be of medium speed.
The main value of this shower is scientific. Anyone running a meteor camera in early February is helping to watch for it.
Viewing tips
- Check meteor forecasts in late January for any predicted return.
- Run a video or time-lapse camera on the nights around 4 February if you have one.
- Look for Eta Draconis in the Dragon's body, between the Plough and the Little Bear.
- Note the exact time of any meteor that seems to come from Draco.
- Combine a watch with the last of the Quadrantid and Gamma Ursae Minorid season.