The annual Leonid Meteor Shower lasts from November 10 through the 23rd and peaks before dawn on November 17. Unfortunately, a Full Moon arrives on November 21, so its light will interfere with meteor watching until after midnight on preceding nights.
While it won’t compete with last year’s spectacular display, this year’s show still promises excitement. Observers under a dark sky can expect to see around 15-20 meteors per hour radiating from the constellation Leo (the Lion). The best time to watch on the 17th comes once the Moon sets around 3 a.m. local time.
The Leonids are tiny specks of dust and debris ejected by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle during its countless orbits of the Sun. The comet was discovered in 1865. As the Earth passes through this stream of dust, the particles hit our atmosphere at about 158,000 mph (256,000 km/h), vaporizing due to air friction. This produces the streaks of light in the sky we call meteors.
Observers occasionally see a brief increase in meteors when Earth crosses the thickest section of the comet’s debris trail, though this occurs after daybreak in North America.
The Leonids are famous for producing meteor storms, in which 100’s of meteors can be seen per hour. In 1999, 2001, and 2002 over 3,000 Leonid meteors were seen each hour. In 2009, over 100 meteors were seen each hour.
As for when the actual peak of the shower will occur, Mikhail Maslov, a Russian meteor expert predicts maximum activity at 15:11 UT (10:11 a.m. EST) on Nov. 17.
The International Meteor Organization (IMO) is forecasting that it will take place a bit later at 21:15 UT (4:15 p.m. EST) on Nov. 17, while the 2010 Observers Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada says it will happen 45 minutes later at 22:00 UT (5 p.m. EST).
All three predictions suggest that central and eastern Asia will be in the best position to see the strongest Leonid activity.
For best viewing of the meteors on the evening of November 17th, you should set up while facing east. Around midnight, the shower will really begin, and you should look directly up. You will not need a telescope to view the shower.
| Leonid Meteor Shower Resources | |||||
| Leonids 2009-2010: prediction of activity | |||||
[phpbay](meteor*|meteorite*), 100, “3239”, “”[/phpbay]
[phpbay]””, 100, “74927”, “”[/phpbay]
[phpbay]””, 100, “74922”, “”[/phpbay]
Leonids Videos:
[tubepress mode=”tag” tagValue=”leonids meteor shower”]
Amazon.com BestSellers
| [phpzon keywords=”meteor shower” searchindex=”Books” num=”3″] |
Filed under: Meteors & Meteorites
As for Clubs, look for the [Royal Astronomical Society of If you’re in Niagara I was a member of the Niagara RASC and they are all good folks. There are RASCs all around southern ontario, I’m sure you can find one close to you. Before you commit to buying a scope, get involved with the club. Not only will they have regular observing nights with a variety of types and sizes of telescopes (and eyepieces, which if you’re using it visually are half the telescope! do not skimp on the eyepieces!) to try out before you choose to buy one, but if you let them know you’re in the market, you may find an excellent deal on a used scope — which is always highly recommended for a beginner, assuming it’s in good condition. If you’ve decided to buy a telescope locally, I personally recommend I have purchased from them before, and like most small “dedicated” astronomy stores, they are real astronomers and they know what they’re talking about and they know everything they’re selling. They are also extremely helpful and stock almost anything you could need. The store’s a bit of a hole in the wall (or it used to be anyway), but don’t let that scare you it’s packed floor to ceiling with astronomical goodies. If that’s a bit out of the way for you (it’s north of Toronto, just west of Newmarket), you could also try They’re right in Toronto. They’re larger, and also have a great selection. Also, before you even bother buying a scope, take some time to learn the night sky. If I tell you to find the Big Dipper or Polaris or maybe Casseiopeia, as they tend to stay around all year round, it’s likely you can do that, and that’s a good start. But you’re going to need to know more than that if you want to align your scope well (and even more if you don’t have a GoTo scope). Get to know the major stars and constellations that are in the sky in each season. Right now Vega and Deneb, and the great square of Pegasus are all high overhead. Stellarium or a handy app like Google Sky on Android phones can help immensely with familiarizing yourself with the sky. One other piece of wisdom, bigger is not always better. Smaller scopes can be easier and quicker to cart outside (either to your backyard, or to your car for a drive to a dark sky spot) and setup. Until you’ve gotten deep enough into the hobby to have an observatory shed with permanently mounted scopes, weight and portability *is* a significant concern. You can have the most beautiful high-end scope in the world, but if it’s a chore to setup, you’re ultimately going to get to see less stars through it than a simpler scope that you can throw together in your backyard every time there’s a clear night.