A diagram of the Taurids meteor shower, which is due to reach peak on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. (American Meteor Society)

By Alex Rawnsley

chance of fireballs

Unique meteor shower competing with ‘super moon’ in Nanaimo skies

Nov 4, 2025 | 5:31 AM

NANAIMO — At times, it could look like meteors are hitting earth from two different locations, but it’s all part of an annual meteor shower.

The southern Taurids will peak Tuesday, Nov. 4 into Wednesday, Nov. 5 with a not-insignificant chance of seeing the odd “fireball” running across the night sky, courtesy the earth passing through debris of the comet Encke at tens of thousands of kilometres per hour.

Vancouver Island University astronomy professor Dr. Gregory Arkos said there’s upwards of a 10 per cent chance of seeing some of these bright flashes.

“Meteor showers can have instances of what are called ‘fireballs’, or much brighter bits of debris burning up and being much more visible. In the case of the Taurids’, we run into slightly denser patches of the material that leads to these meteor showers, and we get these bright fireballs. It’s hard to predict exactly how often that might happen.”

He said it’s a bit “hit or miss” on whether or not conditions will favour skywatchers or not, however some astronomers are predicting a ‘swarm year’ for the Taurids which could result in a higher rate of meteors.

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Those keen to view the show should look towards the southern sky in the early morning hours, soon after midnight.

Comets will likely be visible from two different, but nearby, points in the night sky, the northern and southern Taurids.

“You should be able to, at some point, spot members of both, they will kind of overlap each other. They’re related, but slightly different in terms of when the peak of each shower takes place. If you’re out looking at the same time they’re going to seem to come from slightly different parts of the sky, but very close in Taurus, which is why they’re both called Taurids.”

Making the situation a little more challenging will be a bright moon which will be a “super moon” on Wednesday.

The Taurus constellation will be just to the left of the moon at peak viewing times.

Arkos said the remants of Encke isn’t the only comet capturing attention at the moment.

Both comets Lemmon and Swan are visible in the night sky with some equipment like binoculars or a telescope.

He added the comet Atlas has a lot of onlookers, as astronomers believe it’s an interstellar object.

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