Late Wednesday night, as Damsel and I were walking the dogs, the skies were exceptionally clear for the urban Los Angeles area. We were looking towards the “Seven Sisters” near the zenith when we saw a shooting star. It was probably an early Leonid meteor. This weekend will be a good time to look skyward, especially in the wee hours before dawn when the radiant (located in the constellation Leo) will be above the horizon and your part of the Earth will be plowing head-on into the dust trail left by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
Image: A Leonid “green fireball” meteor. (Courtesy NASA)
According to experts, you just might be able to see up to a hundred meteors per hour — that’s better than one a minute!
From NASA’s Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign webpage:
2006 LEONID FORECASTING
The 2006 Leonids will show a dust trail encounter with the 1932-dust trail of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, as well as the possible return of the Filament component. David Asher’s original prediction put the peak time at 04:45 UT on November 19, with a peak rate of about 100 per hour, visible from western Europe and western Africa. Peak time of the Filament component is uncertain. The traditional maximum of the annual Leonid shower is earlier on November 17, around 16:45 UT, well placed for the western USA (early morning of November 18 local time).