Next year good for sky watchers

People in Taiwan will be able to see one partial solar eclipse and two total lunar eclipses next year in addition to a number of meteor showers, the Astronomical Observatory of the Central Weather Bureau said.

Information provided by the observatory shows that people in Taiwan will be able to see the whole process of the partial solar eclipse on March 19, and will be able to view part of the processes of two total lunar eclipses on March 4 and Aug. 28.

The observatory also indicated that Taiwan will be an ideal place to watch meteor showers next year, with most of these celestial events concentrated in the second half of the year.

Among the meteor showers, the one from the constellation Perseus on the night of Aug. 13 and those streaming from the constellation Gemini Dec. 14 and 15 will be the most worth watching.

Other meteor showers visible to people in Taiwan next year include: the Lyrid meteor shower on the night of April 23; the Aquarid meteor shower on July 28; the Orionid meteor shower on Oct. 21; and the Leonid meteor shower on Dec. 18.

A meteor shower occurs when large amounts of small fragments from cosmic debris enter the Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed within a short period of time, leaving a streak of light that disappears quickly.

Most of the cosmic debris fragments are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all the fragments burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the Earth's surface.