The first of two Taurid meteor showers is taking place this weekend. This meteor shower is one of the small ones we go through each year. You could see upwards of ten meteors shooting across the sky at night. The viewing is better late in the night. The meteors appear to come from the constellation Taurus, thus its name Taurids. Taurus is rising in the east after sunset. So watch the shower late in the evening when the constellation is higher. The shower is space debris caught in the orbit of Comet Encke.

The second shower, will take place next weekend, the nights of November 11 and 12.

Comet Encke is a small periodic comet and has a close orbit around the sun. The comet takes about a three years to make a complete circle around the sun, making it one of the closest comet orbits in our solar system. Some comets can take upwards of 80 to over hundreds of years to complete one orbit. Last month, astronomers could see the comet in the constellations Leo and Virgo in the early morning sky. However, it is so faint and was barely visible even with the help of binoculars.

The meteor shower we experience this weekend and next are the remnants, the dust that follows the comet. The dust is scattered throughout the comet's orbiting path, so each year we get a small meteor shower, no matter where the comet is in its path.