There are many meteor showers throughout the year, but the Leonids in November, the Geminids in December and the Perseids in August are predictably the best from year to year.
This year the Leonids should be at their peak late in the evening on Nov. 17 and early the next morning, with the slim crescent moon setting by 11 p.m. on the 17th.
Meteors are tiny bits of space debris which strike the Earthβs atmosphere at extremely high speeds, typically between 10-50 miles per second. They become very hot, glow brightly and usually vaporize. Those that are big enough to make it through the Earthβs atmosphere to the ground are called meteorites.
During a meteor shower, most of the meteors appear to come from a point in the sky. This point or βradiantβ is in the constellation for which the shower is named. The Leonids are named for Leo the Lion.
The front part of Leo is just above the eastern horizon at 1 a.m. Leonids can be seen all over the sky, and it is not necessary to look at Leo to see an abundance of meteors.
The Leonids are bits of debris from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which was discovered independently by Ernst Tempel (1821-1889) and Horace Parnell Tuttle (1839-1923) on Jan. 6, 1866.
Grab a good lawn chair, face it toward the east, bundle up well and lean back and enjoy the show with hot chocolate, coffee, or tea.
