Shooting stars

A pre-Christmas surprise from Comet 8P Tuttle, on Saturday, the 22nd, could bring us dozens of meteors an hour. Binocular photo of the comet and its attendant meteor dust by Chris Schur of Payson, AZ

"’We could be in for a merry surprise…when Earth passes through a trail of comet dust,’  astronomer Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute [tells spaceweather.com.] Previous returns of Comet Tuttle to the inner solar system have been attended by outbursts of meteors, most recently in 1980 and 1994."

The peak will be in the late afternooon, central time over North America, so you won’t see much then. But there should be some as late as 8 p.m. But you’ll need dark skies, as far from city lights as you can get. Look north after sunset.