LEONID METEOR SHOWER TONIGHT
The annual Leonid Meteor Shower will be a spectacle for sky-watchers tonight around 11PM until 1AM Eastern Standard Time in North America and Western Europe. During this peak in activity, those of us in North America and Europe could see up to 150 shooting stars per hour, or more than two per minute. I learned more about this exciting spectacle from an article at the Yahoo! homepage.
According to Yahoo!, ""We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Cooke notes that the shooting stars during this peak period are likely to be faint, however, created by very small meteoroid grains.
Elsewhere people will see the typically enjoyable Leonid display of a few meteors each hour, weather permitting and assuming dark skies away from city lights."
Ancient debris
The shooting stars are known as Leonids. They are debris left behind by a comet called Temple-Tuttle that passes periodically through the solar system. Every November the path of Earth goes through trails of debris that have been shifted over several millennia. Leonids become bright fireball as they pass through the atmosphere. This fireball effect could occur at any time.
Leonids are named after the constellation Leo because they appear to arise directly from this constellation. The Leonids are actually underway already, ramping up gradually to the peak. The meteor shower continues for several days after tonight's peak.
If you plan on watching the meteor shower you should plan to head out thirty minutes early to allow your eyes to adjust to the dark. Telescopes and binoculars are not useful. All you need is a chair or sleeping bag and warm clothes. Look towards the east, but try to scan the entire sky as you never know where a Leonid is going to be.