Major Meteor Showers

Name	Dates	Approximate Peak	Appearance
Quadrantids	Early January	2-4 January	Moderately bright, medium speed
Alpha Aurigids	Early February	6-9 February	up to 10 per hour expected and no moon helps
Virginids and Alpha Virginds	-	10-13 April	peak 12th
Lyrids	Mid April to late April	21-23 April	Fast and bright with some trains
Alpha Scorpiids	late April	28th April	sparse
Aquarids	Mid April to late May	4-6 May	Fast and bright with many trains
Eta Aquarids	5th May	-	peak - orbital association with Halley
Alpha Scorpiids	-	13th May	second maximum
Ophiucids	-	10th and 20th June	Double maximum
Aquarids (south)	Mid July to mid-August	26-28 July	Medium speed but faint
Perseids	Mid July to late August	11-13 August	Fast, bright, and colourful with many trains
Alpha Aurigids	Late August to early September	31 August to 2 September	Fast and bright
Piscids	-	19th and 21st September	Double maximum
Delta Aurigids	Mid Sept to mid Oct	27-30 September	Fast but faint
Piscids	-	13th October	Third maximum
Orionids	Early October to early November	20-22 October	Fast and sometimes bright with some trains
Taurids	-	3rd and 13th Novemeber	Double maximum
Leonids	Mid November	16-18 November	Very fast and very bright with most leaving trains
Alpha Monocerotids	Mid November to late November	20-22 November	Very fast with some quite bright
Geminids	Mid December	13-15 December	Average speed but very colourful
Ursids	Mid December to late December	21-23 December	Average speed and faint

NEO - RECENT CLOSE APPROACHES TO EARTH

Near Earth Objects - Our solar system is teeming with asteroids and comets, some of which periodically pass close to Earth.
These space rocks, called near-Earth objects, provide good opportunities for study and can also be potentially dangerous to Earth.

Ask the dinosaurs !!!

• ASTEROID NEAR MISS: On Wednesday January 13 2010 at 12:46 pm Greenwich time Asteroid 2010 AL30, will make a
  close approach to the Earth's surface to within 76,000 miles, about 10-15 meters across.
• ASTEROID NEAR MISS: On Nov. 6th 2009 at 2132 UT, asteroid 2009 VA barely missed Earth when it flew just 14,000 km
  above the planet's surface. That's well inside the "Clarke Belt" of geosynchronous satellites. If it had hit, the 6 metre
  wide space rock would have disintegrated in the atmosphere as a spectacular fireball, causing no significant damage
  to the ground. 2009 VA was discovered just 15 hours before closest approach by astronomers working at the
  Catalina Sky Survey.
• For a complete list of recent NEO's go here