Draconids

The meteor stream of Draconids, named after its home comets also Giacobiniden is active in the period from 6 to 10 October and reached its maximum on 8 October. The radian is in the "head" of the constellation Dragon, which is circumpolar from Central Europe.

The parent comet of Giacobiniden is 21P/Giacobini-Zinner whose orbit crosses the Earth's orbit almost. All 13 years ( two orbital periods of Giacobini - Zinner ) leads to close encounters between Giacobini - Zinner and the earth, by which the earth moves through the particle cloud of comets. This resulted in 1933, 1946, 1985 and 1998 to an increased rate of meteors. The most spectacular events occurred in 1933 and 1946, in which a Zenithal Hourly Rate ( ZHR ) was observed of approximately 10,000 meteors per hour - that is, with a favorable location about 3 per second. In the years 1985 and 1998 the ZHR reached a value of about 500 meteors per hour. 2005, a ZHR of 150 meteors per hour per hour was registered by radar, while visually at least 40 meteors were seen per hour.

On October 8, 2011 between 18 and 23h CEST greatly increased event rate was observed again. The ZHR reached a value of approximately 300 meteors per hour. Due to the almost full moon, which brightened the sky, but only visually significantly less meteors could be seen. A year later it came on October 8, again to an increased meteor rate. In the evenings, a ZHR of about 500 meteors per hour was observed.