AUSTIN — The winter solstice has arrived with today bringing the shortest amount of daylight all year, and tonight being the longest night of the year.
This weekend, central Texans have multiple reasons to step outside and look up at the night sky and thanks to the longer nights right now, you will have plenty of time to do it.
This weekend not only brings a full moon, but the Ursid meteor shower will be occurring as well.
The Ursid meteor shower is known to be one of the more low-key meteor showers according to EarthSky.com, but star-gazers should still take advantage of the opportunity to step outside and see it.
The meteor shower will offer around five to 10 meteors per hour just before sunrise on Saturday, which is when the meteor shower will peak.
The best chance for you to see any of the meteors before dawn isn't only because that is when the meteor shower peaks either, it is also because this weekend is the full moon, and the bright moon will make it harder to see the shower.
On top of the full moon and meteor shower, you will also have multiple chances to see the International Space Station go overhead. Spotthestation.nasa.gov shows three passings of the ISS this weekend for the Austin area.
| Fri Dec 21, 7:00 AM | 2 min | 41° | 10° above SSW | 41° above S |
| Sat Dec 22, 6:09 AM | 2 min | 22° | 11° above S | 22° above SE |
| Sun Dec 23, 6:52 AM | 6 min | 44° | 10° above WSW |
11° above NNE |
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The great news about all of this is the KVUE weather team has forecast a clear to mostly clear sky this weekend, which will make for great conditions for those wanting to check out the meteor shower, ISS or the full moon.