Meteor

The Quadrantid meteors, less well known than other meteor showers but a decent show for the Northern Hemisphere, reached their narrow peak early Thursday morning. There is a chance more could be seen before dawn Friday. The shower actually peaked around 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and only lasts for a few hours, according to NASA. The shower is named for the former constellation from which it appears to radiate,  Quadrans Muralis. The constellation was not included in an  International Astronomical Union official list of constellations in 1922, as EarthSky.org explains.

Watch the Eta Aquarid meteor shower in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings. The shower can produce as many as 20-40 meteors per hour at its peak, which falls around May 4-5. SpaceWeather.com suggests to expect 30+ meteors per hour, given the light of the waning moon. Like those in other annual showers, the Eta Aquarids get their name from the point from which they appear to radiate. In this case, it's the star Eta Aquarii, part of the constellation Aquarius. According to EarthSky.org, the meteors appear to emanate from a part of the constellation known as the Water Jar. Check out EarthSky's charts of how to spot the constellations here . The best time to look for the meteors is in the darkest hours of the morning, around 2-4 a.m. Best to look from a spot with a wide view of the sky and away from bright city lights.

Rain clouds will get in the way during the peak, but this weekend offers an opportunity to watch the Lyrid meteor shower . The meteors could appear streaking anywhere across the sky, but they get their name from the appearance that they radiate from the constellation Lyra in the northeast sky. Watch after midnight and up until just before dawn for up to 20 meteors per hour . Saturday and Sunday are the shower's peak, but the meteors...

The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks next week, but a few of the "shooting stars" may be visible as early as Tuesday night, before a nearly full moon outshines the show. The meteors are expected from about April 16 to April 25, with a peak around April 22. But given that the full moon arrives April 25, some of the meteors may be too faint to see during the peak. The show isn't the most dramatic of the year to begin with. The Lyrids are known to show up at a rate of 10-20 per hour at the peak, though that's on a moonless night, according to EarthSky.org . Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through the paths of rubble left behind by comets.

Early-morning commuters in Maryland and as far away as Pittsburgh and Massachusetts were startled Monday by what was likely a spectacular meteor that crossed the sky in the pre-dawn darkness. Dawn Teagle Dobbs spotted it as she drove south on Interstate 270 near Gaithersburg at 4:47 a.m. "At first I thought it was a shooting star, but it was huge and bright green with a tail," she wrote in a post to The Baltimore Sun's Weather Blog. Ricky Diggler was motoring south on Route 100. "I saw a very large, greenish-yellow-colored object burning (with fiery tail)

Scores of people in Maryland and Pennsylvania who lingered outdoors into the early morning hours Monday were startled by the brilliant flash of a meteor that soared over the Mid-Atlantic states. Many more were rattled in their beds by the sonic boom that followed the flash. Sam Luther witnessed both events from a camp on the Susquehanna River near Delta, Pa. "We were sitting by the campfire on the river talking when the entire sky lit up for 3-5 seconds," he said in a post to TheBaltimore Sun's Weather Blog.

Hometown -- Baltimore Current members --Chris Laun, vocals and guitar; Greta Thomas, violin; Sarah Canter, cello; Brent Davis, bass; Mason Baron, drums Founded in --2006 Style --rock Influenced by --Radiohead, They Might Be Giants, ELO, XTC, REM Notable --Laun, formerly a member of the now-defunct local band Challenge Club, wrote all of the songs for the forthcoming full-length album. Some of the material was written in the past while Laun was with other bands and is now finally seeing the light of day, Laun said.

People from Maryland to Virginia who happened to glance south just after sunset on Sunday are still talking about a bright fireball that swept across the sky before blowing apart."

CAPE CHARLES, Va. - David Powars takes a magnifying glass from his mud-splattered pants and peers at the 10-million-year-old pebbles that just gushed through a hose to the surface of the earth here. The tiny gray stones are not particularly striking. But they are part of what covers the largest impact crater in the United States, a formation the size of Rhode Island created 35 million years ago when a massive meteor smashed into the planet. The meteor sent rocks flying as far as the Gulf of Mexico and carved out geological rifts that created the Chesapeake Bay. What remains of the meteor, which was a mile in diameter, now lies under the bay and Virginia's Eastern Shore.

Seen any good meteors lately? We're nearing Aug. 11-12 peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, and meteor rates are already rising. The Perseids occur as Earth passes through the dust trail of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The glare of moonlight will fade the faintest Perseids, so try looking between 9 and 11 p.m. Tuesday while Luna is low. Watch the whole sky with the moon at your back. Clear skies!

As if some weren't already on edge with the prospect of an asteroid passing 17,000 miles from Earth, a meteorite exploded over Russian skies injuring 500 people. Scientists say the two aren't related , but there is a long list of questions many may have beyond that. Here are some answers, according to Richard Henry, academy professor in Johns Hopkins University's Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy: What is the difference between a meteor and an asteroid?

The Quadrantid meteors, less well known than other meteor showers but a decent show for the Northern Hemisphere, reached their narrow peak early Thursday morning. There is a chance more could be seen before dawn Friday. The shower actually peaked around 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and only lasts for a few hours, according to NASA. The shower is named for the former constellation from which it appears to radiate,  Quadrans Muralis. The constellation was not included in an  International Astronomical Union official list of constellations in 1922, as EarthSky.org explains.

Good morning and welcome to an extra robust Friday online trends report. So did you see that awesome Meteor Shower ? No, I didn't either, but thanks to Internet our ignorance and laziness will not be punished because the photos are plentiful and popular. Thanks Internet! The political soap opera Scandal continues to prove extremely popular with Baltimore audiences after another eventful show. SPOILERS BELOW PEOPLE! Meanwhile, Susan Rice  will not be leading the State Department anytime soon, The Air Foamposite One 'Stealth' (a sneaker, a not military drone)

Readers in rural areas have an opportunity to see hundreds of meteors streaking across the sky Thursday and Friday nights, thanks to the annual Geminid shower as well as a potential second shower. The Geminids, which appear to emanate from the constellation Gemini, peak in the wee hours of Friday morning but have already been providing a show around the world the past couple of nights. They could appear at a rate of 120 per hour in rural areas, according to NASA . Meanwhile, astronomers are eyeing a second potential band of debris in space that could create even more meteors.

Sunday, Dec. 9 Classical music Candlelight Concerts presents the Curtis Institute of Music, featuring guitarist Jason Vieaux and violist Roberto Diaz, at 7 p.m. at Howard Community College's Horowitz Performing Arts Center, Smith Theatre, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. Tickets are $30; $28 for seniors; and $12 for students. Information: 410-997-2324 or candlelightconcerts.org . Holiday concert The Alleluias, an interdenominational Christian choral group, present the Christmas cantata "Agnus Dei," featuring the music of Michael Smith , at 3 p.m. at the Conference and Retreat Center of Bon Secours, 1525 Marriottsville Road in Marriottsville.

One of several meteor showers to take place around the same time each year, the Orionid meteor shower is best seen in the early mornings this weekend. The best time to see them is between midnight and dawn, according to EarthSky.org, and in a place far enough from the city lights that you can see some stars in the sky. That includes the stars of Orion's belt. That's because, like other annual showers, the Orionids are named from the point from which they appear to radiate in the sky. Orion is one of the easier constellations to find, but nevertheless, watching the shower doesn't require locating Orion.

LOS ANGELES -- The meteorite that caused a green flash over California in the early evening of Oct. 3 apparently streaked through the sky above New Mexico 100 minutes earlier, then circled the Earth before reaching the ground north of Kernville, UCLA researchers said yesterday.Intrigued by this unusual event, the UCLA team has put up a $5,000 reward for the first person who finds a piece of the meteorite weighing more than four ounces.The bright green flash, which was widely reported in the Los Angeles area, stirred a great deal of interest and speculation about its origin, in part because of sightings as far away as New Mexico.

Clouds blocked our view of the recent Lyrid meteor shower, but there is another chance to see “shooting stars” this weekend. The Eta Aquarids are expected to peak in the early mornings of Saturday and Sunday. The meteors come from a cloud of debris left behind by Halley's Comet, according to NASA. While the famous comet only comes by once every 76 years, twice a year Earth passes through its debris, for the Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October. The meteor shower is best viewed from the southern hemisphere, according to NASA, but provides a show up north here, too. Watch for them in the southwest sky before dawn.