Meteoracle is a tool that can be used to predict meteoractivity for a given place and time. While it attempts to give actual numbers, it's main power is that:

• it allows you to see the observing conditions on a given night,
• it allows you to quickly compare activity on several nights and
• it allows you to compare activity during different parts of a night.

Meteoracle is a helpfull tool to plan observations while it also gives an indication of the actual activity that can be expected.

The program is written by Daniël van Os (http://www.supercell.nl/) of the Dutch Meteor Society (http://www.dmsweb.org/)

From this page you can download the latest version of Meteoracle. A full download is always available (about 1.7 mb). This includes the datafiles and necessary libaries. This program requieres Windows 98, 2000 or XP. I'm not sure if it will work with Windows 95, NT or other versions. This screenshot shows the most important window of Meteoracle.

The upper graph, with three lines, shows the altitude of the sun, the moon and the selected radiant.

The lower graph shows, in blue, the estimated ZHR of a stream as it varies with time. The red line shows how much meteors you could actually see at the selected location.

In the screenshot the profile for the Perseids in 2004 is shown. The short outburst predicted by Esko Lyytinen is shown on top of the annual activity.

The current version is 1.1.6.
If you already have version 1.0.9 or newer of Meteoracle installed, you can update it to version 1.1.6 by extracting the files in the zipfile to the folder where meteoracle.exe is on your computer. I expect more new version in the coming weeks, so I won't update the full version everytime.

You can download the update from here (133kb).

Currently available is Meteoracle version 1.1.6

Check the What's New? page for a version by version overview of changes.

The program is freeware and it is allowed to redistribute the program or make it available on other websites if the following three conditions are met:

1. You have to inform me.
2. You may not modify the program, data or the archive.
3. The distribution must be free. It is allowed to place this program on a CD that comes for free with a magazine. It is not allowed to place this program on a shareware/freeware/demo compilation that is not 100% free.

Downloading and using the program is at your own risk, I'm not responsible for any damage to your computer or software caused by Meteoracle. Nor am I responsible for damage to your health while observing meteors. And ofcourse I'm not responsible when you don't see the number of meteors the program predicts.

If you agree with the above, you may download the program here (1.7mb).

Save the zip file on your computer and extract the files in it in a temporary folder. Run the mo_setup.exe file and follow the steps in the installer.

If you need help, you can contact me at: meteoracle1@supercell.nl. Bugs reports, suggestions, comments and request are also welcome, but please keep in mind that this is the very first version and my head is still filled with ideas, tweaks and improvements.