Your Guide to the Leonids: How to See November’s Fiery Meteor Display

The fallen-off bits of an past comet volition graze our ambiance this month, producing 1 of the much celebrated yearly meteor showers known for being agleam and colorful.

This year, the Leonid meteor ablution volition streak crossed Earth’s skies from November 3 to December 2, peaking connected November 18 astir 1 a.m. ET, according to EarthSky. It mightiness beryllium worthwhile to beryllium connected the lookout for meteors and fireballs lighting up the entity from the nighttime of November 17 until the dawn of the adjacent day.

To guarantee the champion viewing of the meteor shower, you should commencement gazing upwards aft midnight, with highest viewing hours taking spot close earlier sunrise. You don’t request to look a definite absorption arsenic the Leonids are disposable successful each parts of the sky. It’s really amended to presumption the Leonids distant from its radiant, oregon the constituent successful the entity from which they look to radiate. In this case, the meteor shower’s radiant constituent is the constellation of Leo, but if you look straight astatine it, the meteors volition look shorter truthful you mightiness privation to look successful a antithetic absorption to seizure each of the Leonids successful their agelong and agleam glory.

You don’t request a scope oregon binoculars to spot the Leonids. To guarantee bully viewing conditions, you should spell to the darkest determination possible, perchance a rooftop if you unrecorded successful a metropolis similar New York truthful that you tin get distant from agleam lights.

Unfortunately, the Leonids meteor ablution volition person to vie with agleam moonlight this year. This month, the afloat Moon volition scope highest illumination connected November 15, close arsenic the meteor ablution is getting acceptable to amusement disconnected its fireballs. The Leonids volition highest with a waning gibbous Moon successful the nighttime sky, making it somewhat much hard to highest the meteors.

The Leonids nutrient agleam fireballs and Earth-grazing meteors that tin beryllium rather colorful. Fireballs originate from larger chunks of material, and truthful nutrient bigger explosions of airy and colour that lasts longer than an mean meteor streak. Streaking adjacent to the horizon, Earth-grazing meteors often flaunt agelong and colorful tails. The meteors are besides fast, racing crossed the skies astatine speeds of 44 miles (71 kilometers) per second, according to NASA, which makes the Leonids 1 of the fastest meteor showers.

Meteor showers are breached disconnected bits of comets and asteroids arsenic they alert by Earth. As comets attack the Sun, their dusty worldly forms a process that follows them connected their orbit. Each year, Earth’s orbit places the satellite successful a presumption to transverse the way of this debris trail. Some of the particulate interacts with Earth’s ambiance and disintegrates, creating fiery streaks crossed our skies.

The Leonids originate from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun each 33 years. Ernst Tempel and Horace Tuttle discovered the comet, which measures astir 2.24 miles (3.6 km) across, successful 1865 and 1866. Every 33 years oregon so, erstwhile the ablution takes spot astatine the aforesaid clip that the comet is closest to the Sun during its orbit, entity watchers are treated to a Leonids storm. As the comet sweeps done the interior star system, nearest to our big star, caller sets of comet particles autumn disconnected that rapidly turns into elongated streaks of light.

During the highest of a Leonids storm, viewers tin spot hundreds to thousands of meteors per hour. The past meteor tempest took spot successful 2002, producing 500 to 1,000 meteors per hour. Although a meteor tempest apt won’t beryllium happening this year, the Leonids are inactive guaranteed to enactment connected a decent show. So it volition beryllium worthy it to enactment up and instrumentality successful the nighttime sky.