Tonight the sky will be lit with the annual Leonid meteor shower. It is expected that peak viewing times will be late Nov. 16 and on Wednesday, Nov. 17. The best time to catch the sky spectacle is before dawn on Wednesday after the moon has set.
This may be the best skywatching event since the Perseid meteor shower in August.
The Leonids annual shooting stars
The Leonids received their name because they appear to be traveling from the constellation Leo the Lion from East-to-West across the sky.
Meteor showers aka “shooting stars,” are actually comet dust, rock, and debris that fall off a comet. The comet sheds its particles which ignite when they enter the atmosphere of the Earth. The shooting stars from the Leonids come from the Tempel-Tuttle comet as it swings by the Earth. At the same time, the Earth’s orbit takes it through the trail of comet dust.
2021 Leonids meteor shower
According to EarthSky.org many amazing meteor showers have been seen during the annual Leonids. In some years, viewers saw a literal meteor storm. During 1833’s Leonids it is estimated that as many as 100,000 meteors per hour lit up the sky.
