Leonid Meteor Shower Hits Tonight, Peaks Tomorrow

Though expectations for a spectacular show may be low, the Leonid meteor shower is on the way. For those in the continental U.S., late Monday night into Tuesday early morning will be your best chance to catch a few glimpses. Space.com explains why you might see only a smattering of meteors: This year finds Comet Tempel-Tuttle nearing the far end of its elongated orbit. In 2010, the comet crossed the orbit of Uranus and in 2016 it will be as far from the sun as it can get: 1.84 billion miles (2.96 billion km). That's not only where the comet is, but also where the heaviest concentrations of meteoroids are as well. In contrast, at the point in the comet's orbit where we will be passing by on Tuesday morning, there is nothing save for a scattered few particles; stragglers likely loosed from the comet's nucleus a millennium or two ago. So the 2014 Leonids are expected to show only low activity this year; "maybe" at best 5 to 10 Leonids per hour might be seen.

Comments

Re:Usually a non event

[TapeCutter]

I've lost count of the number of Leonids I've seen since I saw my first (and best) leonid shower in the late 60's (17 thru my bedroom windows in about an hour). Saw a nice slow moving green one last night from my hotel balcony in Broome, completely accidental, it was only after I spotted it that I remembered what the date was. Having said that, the easily accessible dark sky here in Oz does give me an unfair advantage.

Re:This is the WORLD wide web.

[TapeCutter]

In my experience the "peak" doesn't matter much, the best strategy is to go out for half an hour or so over the next few days when Leo is visible in the sky, after midnight local time is always preferable since the meteors will be hitting the atmosphere square on.