Tomorrow night, the Charlotte region will be in the prime path of an ultra rare meteor storm.
According to meteor scientists Esko Lyytinen and Peter Jenniskens, there’s a “good chance” that we will see the first alpha Monocerotids meteor storm since 1995, a storm that produced roughly 400 meteors per hour.
The meteors have precipitated from the constellation Monoceros, a faint arrangement just left of Orion that means ‘unicorn’ in Greek.
You’ll want to go outside at least a half-hour before peak time (about 11:30 pm) to be sure you can see the storm and to give your eyes time to adjust to the dark night sky.
You can download a GPS-synced skymap on your phone to easily locate the Monoceros constellation to see the source of the meteors, although they will likely fill up a large portion of the night sky.