Dig out the binoculars for meteor shower this weekend

SEEING a meteor streak across the sky is always a sight to behold, especially as they are such rare phenomenons.

Stargazers in Staffordshire will have the opportunity to see not one, but potentially five every hour this weekend.

Tonight and tomorrow night, the Taurid meteor shower will peak with around five “shooting stars” expected hourly over the county after sunset.

The display is caused by the Earth passing through debris left behind by the Comet Encke and appears annually around autumn time.

It is not the most actionpacked cosmic event, compared to other meteor showers such as Quadrantis, which boasts around 110 meteors per hour around January, but it will still be an impressive spectacle. The Taurid meteor shower also happens in two parts.

The South Taurids are visible between September 10 and November 20 in the Southern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, we see the North Taurids in the UK up until December.

According to Royal Museums Greenwich, the best time to spot the Taurids is on a clear night with no clouds.

A clear night is forecast tonight in Staffordshire, which means it could be the perfect opportunity to dig out that dusty telescope, or a trusty pair of binoculars.