Looking at our Michigan skies at night this week could provide some glowing entertainment. It’s called the Alpha Capricornids meteor shower and it shows up yearly here in Michigan in July or August.

It isn’t a very well known meteor shower due to the fact that it doesn’t produce a lot of meteors, but if you decide to stay up to view this, and you see one it can be quite an exciting experience.

The Alpha Capricornids typically only show five to 10 meteors per hour, according to Mike Murray, Delta College Planetarium astronomer. Murray says the amount of meteors expected is not much more than we would see on an average night.

 

In comparison, the Perseids can show 50 to 100 meteors per hour. “The distinguishable parts of the Alpha Capricornids are the relatively slow movement of the meteors, and their propensity for fireballs,” Murray said.

A fireball is a meteor brighter than venus, these slow meteors can appear like a plane on fire above the horizon. If you happen to see one, it’s something you won’t soon forget.

This meteor shower is expected to peak tonight or Thursday night. Lower Michigan is expecting clear skies both nights.

You may wonder what the term slow fireball actually means. The Alpha Capricornids travel as slow as 54,000 mph, which compared to the Perseid meteor is only about half as fast, as the Perseids literally streak across the sky.

The slower speed will provide an extra few seconds of viewing time. If you are up for the view, before midnight you will see them coming from the southeast, appearing more from the south after midnight.

If you are lucky enough to experience these visually pleasing slow fireballs, you now know what you just saw.

Full article at MLive

Live

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

 

The 100 Best Places to Live on the East Coast

Inside Amazon: A Detailed History of America's Biggest Online Retailer

Stacker compiled a list of key moments in Amazon's history and its current business from a variety of sources. Here's a look at the events that turned an online bookstore into a global conglomerate and a self-made entrepreneur into the world's second-richest man.

 

More From 94.9 WMMQ