This is late Friday evening, going into early Saturday morning, depending on your time zone. Camelopardalis is circumpolar, or nearly so, from most of North America. That is, the radiant point will be to the north, and visible without problem, as long as the weather cooperates.Dim, obscure periodic comet 209P/LINEAR is about to pass close to Earth — and bring with it a trail of debris that could make for an exciting meteor shower in May, during the predawn hours of the 24th.Most skygazers are familiar with the usual "biggies" among meteor showers like the Perseids and Geminids. But if the calculations of celestial dynamicists are correct, we're about to experience a terrific meteor shower that virtually no one's ever heard of: the Camelopardalids.
Don't blame yourself for not knowing about this one — historic records show little evidence that the "Cams" have ever made an appearance before. They are bits of dust cast off from periodic comet 209P/LINEAR, an obscure, dim comet that circles the Sun every 5.1 years.What's got dynamicists excited, however, is that Earth might might plow right through relatively dense strands of debris shed by the comet long ago. This should create a strong burst of "shooting stars" on May 24th.Several predictions suggest you might see anywhere from 100 to 200 meteors per hour from a dark location free of light pollution. That means you could perhaps see one or two meteors per minute. Some (but not all) dynamicists think there's even an outside chance that the celestial spectacle could briefly become a meteor "storm," with more than 1,000 arriving per hour! (But it's also possible that the display might be weak, with just a few dozen meteors visible per hour even in a dark sky.)
Timing is Great for North America
Storm or no storm, they agree that the peak will likely occur between about 6:30 and 7:30 Universal Time on the 24th. This timing favors North Americans, though it means you'll have to be out around 3 a.m. on the East Coast and just after midnight on the West Coast. The outburst will be brief, lasting just a few hours, though a somewhat longer duration is possible. Moonlight from a slender waning crescent won't be a problem. - See more at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... 55eBm.dpuf
BTW, "what is a camelopard" is/was a Trivial Pursuit question back in the day. I was playing against everyone else in the family one night, and the question came up for me. I hmmmed and hawwwwed, trying to remember. One brother-in-law (a very smart, high dollar attorney) was urging that I be called for time, when I remembered that Camelopardalis was a constellation, and that it represents an animal... What do you get if you cross a camel with a leopard? Well, a camel with spots, in other words, a giraffe. The bro-in-law was upset when I got the question right.
Oh, I won the game, too. 
