Leonids to grace sky on from Nov 14th to 21st.
For all the amateur astromomers out there, this year's Leonid show promises to be spectacular.
In North America, the show will start at 11:00 pm EST on November 17th, and peak at 5:00 am EST. At 4000 meteors predicted per hour, that'll be pretty spectacular, but if you live in Australia, Japan or other parts of the Pacific rim, tune in at about 1:00 am to 4:00 am on the 19th because 8000 to 14000 are predicted per hour at that peak (but it'll be morning in North America, so we won't see them).
The Leonids peak every 33 years, but after next year (which will be marred by a full moon) we won't seen this sort of display until the end of the century, as the pattern is broken by Jupiter's effect on the comet trails that cause these yearly desplays.
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Comments
Thanks Melskunk and Mwalimu! I'm going to have to buy, borrow, or beg a telescope or binoculars from someone to see this.
Ardashir
I should point out a few things:
The peak shower WILL be visible in north america. The peak is 4am CDT on Nov 18 and the sky will be plenty dark as the moon will be far below the horizon (moonrise is 10:07am on the 18th, CDT.) Folks on the East coast may have dawn ruin their show, but I imagine there will be plenty of lights before maximum for them to enjoy.
The meteor shower is in the constellation Leo, which at this peak will be due East at about 45deg elevation at the peak (for us Central Zone furs.) If you are on the east coast, look a little higher. If you are on the west coast, look a bit lower. The earlier you go out and look, the lower in the sky the shower will be. (Like the sun, the constellations rise in the east and cross to the west.)
Do not try to see better by using binoculars. You will not know where to look as the meteors appear and then burn up in a split second. The best way to see this spectacle is to get somewhere where there is no light pollution to the East and face that direction. Just sit back in a reclining chair, facing east, and enjoy the show.
Incidently the brightest star in Leo is Regulus.
Reality is not only stranger than we think, it's stranger than we CAN think!
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