Every year, Earth encounters a debris stream of cometary particles. Here are the best ways to view the Leonid Meteor Shower.
CHINA METEOR MAGIC Colorful streaks of meteors are seen in the sky of the suburbs of Beijing on Monday, Nov. 19, 2001. The Leonids meteor shower occured in Beijing, Nanjing and other places in the early morning of Nov. 19. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Jundong)
AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Jundong
METEOR JOSHUA TREE Several Leonids meteors are seen streaking through the sky over Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., looking to the south in the Southern California desert in this approximately 25-minute time exposure ending at 3:45 a.m. PST (11:45 UT) Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001. Two are visable at center, one partly hidden behind a Joshua tree branch. Two more faint meteors are just above the scrub brush at lower right, and two other faint meteors appear at top and center left.. The Leonid shower occurs each November, whenthe Earth's orbit takes it through a trail of dust particles left by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings around the sun once every 33 years. The horizontal streaks are stars and or planets. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
AP Photo/Reed Saxon
VERMONT LEONID METEOR The Leonids meteor shower provided an exciting eastern sky over Monpelier and Barre, Vermont on Sunday morning, Nov. 18, 2001, in Fayston, Vt. The Leonids are minute dust particles shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The meteors are called Leonids because they appear to come from the direction of the constellation Leo the Lion. (AP photo/Mike Riddell)
AP photo/Mike Riddell
METEOR A meteor streaks through the sky over Joshua Tree National Monument in the Southern California desert, some of hundreds seen in the early morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001. The meteor's fiery entry into Earth's atmosphere takes just about a second in this time exposure of one minute, causing slight blurring of the stars in the sky. This year's much-anticipated Leonids shower delighted people around the world who stayed up late or woke up early to see it. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
AP Photo/Reed Saxon
LEONIDS METEORS Leonids meteors are seen streaking through the sky in Muju county, 300 kilometers, southwest of Seoul, South Korea Monday, Nov. 19, 2001. (AP Photo/Yonhap)
AP Photo/Yonhap
METERO The tail of a meteor can be seen amongst the bright stars taken in the early morning of Tuesday, November. 17, 1998 at Doi Intanon, Chaingmai province about 580 kilometers (360 miles) north of Bangkok. The spot is the northern top of the country and predicted to be the best front seat to view the "Leonids" meteor shower on November 18. (AP Photo/Pornvilai Carr)
The Leonids were first seen in 902 A.D. and “storm” every 33 years, producing hundreds to thousands of meteors an hour. The last Leonid storm was in 1998.
Each year at this time our planet encounters a debris stream of cometary particles made by Comet Temple-Tuttle as it orbits the sun. As Earth moves in its orbit around the sun it collides with this debris stream, and the particles hit our atmosphere at 45 miles per second (about 155,000 miles per hour) to become “shooting” or “falling stars.”
The best place to see the Leonids is a location away from lights and obstructions, which gives you the best chance to see the peak of 10 to 15 meteors an hour. This makes the country or beach the best place to be, but city dwellers may still see the brightest Leonids as long as they are not near a streetlight or nestled among tall buildings. The moon will be almost new so it will not affect our ability to see this year’s Leonids.
You do not need any equipment or know-how to enjoy this sky show; just find a place where you can put a lounge chair or blanket to see the eastern sky. After 1:30 a.m., a part of the meteor shower can be traced back to the constellation Leo which will be about 30 degrees above the Eastern horizon. As the night wears on Leo will rise higher in the sky. Sporadic meteors that are not part of the shower can be normally seen during the night as well.
The key to watching the shower is being comfortable, in other words WARM. The Leonids can appear anywhere in the sky but looking at least halfway up in the sky facing east gives you the widest viewing area — this is where the lounge chair or blanket come in handy. Enjoy the shower with family, friends or your significant other. Some music, food and beverages are an added plus.
If you are up before dawn also check out bright Venus and Jupiter in the southeast. Venus is the brighter and lower of the two and dim reddish Mars is above Jupiter by about a fist-width or so.
