WASHINGTON — Are you an early riser and like to look at the night sky? The next two mornings will be your cup of tea as the annual Leonid Meteor Shower is expected to peak in the hours before dawn on Nov. 17 and 18.
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.
Good hunting!
Follow Greg on Twitter @skyguyinva and his daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration. Email him at skyguyinva@gmail.com.