This year's Leonids meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst over Asia. The phase of the moon will be new -- setting the stage for what could be one of the best Leonid showers in years.
"We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia. Our forecast is in good accord with independent theoretical work by other astronomers" - Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
High Knoll Observatory - In November of 2001, more than 50 local astronomers observed a meteor storm from the Junk Bond Observatory in Hereford, Ariz. At the peak of the Leonid meteor storm (a rare event) observers were able to count more than 3,400 shooting stars in one hour. Thats very close to one shooting star per second. Some of them silently exploded in the upper atmosphere sending off two or more smaller pieces or some left a reddish gas cloud that glimmered in the sky for several minutes.
Various astronomy clubs have organised trips around Pune to watch the Leonid meteor shower, which is expected to happen on November 17 night.
"We are planning to take down radio observations of the shower, besides setting up multi-station photo opportunities to capture the phenomenon" - Gayatri Urankar of Khagol Vishwa, an amateur astronomy club that has arranged an event in Kadus village near Rajgurunagar.
Astronomers estimate that a meteor storm on Nov. 12-13, 1833, bombarded Earth's atmosphere with more than 30,000 meteors an hour blazing over Alabama and much of the rest of the country. The 1833 storm was an unusually active display of Leonid meteors, specks of debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle, often as small as grains of sand, that briefly streak across the sky as they burn up in the atmosphere.
To get the best view of the Leonid meteor shower this year, scientists say you need to be up between 3:30 and 5:30 AM the morning of November 17th on the East Coast. On the West Coast, that's 12:30 to 2:30 AM. So you'll have to get your parents' permission to stay up really late. Read more
This month, the new moon is November 16th, so the skies will be dark for those who are up and watching for shooting stars streaking across the sky on November 17th from the Leonid Meteor show.
This year may produce another enhanced return, with ZHRs predicted to peak at 100+ according to independent theoretical work by David Asher, Esko Lyytinen & Marku Nissinen, Mikhail Maslov, and Jérémie Vaubaillon. Trails laid down by the comet in 1466 and 1533 are expected to be the chief contributors to whatever happens, with peaks on November 17, due at sometime from about 20h40m to 22h UT then. Esko & Marku's work suggests the 1466 trail may produce heightened rates generally, with ZHRs above 20, from about 6h30m UT on November 17 till 0h30m UT on November 18, and likely above ~ 40 from ~ 16h-23h UT on November 17. This increased ZHR level will probably combine with that from the 1533 trail to push ZHRs up perhaps towards 120 at some stage between 21h-22h UT on the 17th. Mikhail suggested ZHRs should peak in that hour too, with ZHRs of ~ 130-140. Jérémie's modelling implied the chance of a possible meteor storm, with ZHR peaks around 21h44m (ZHRs ~ 950+) and 21h51m UT (~ 600) combining to give a rate perhaps in the 1000-1500 range briefly. Read more (1.94mb, PDF)
Year 2009 Trail 1466 Nrev 16 Time of max: 17/11/2009 at 21:43 (may be 0.5-1hr later) Sol.Long. 235.54461 deg dist (au) -0.000447 DeltaA (au) 0.09939 f_M 0.195 ZHR 500 /hr
The Leonid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 17. This annual shower produced a spectacular number of meteors in 2001 and less impressive numbers in years since. Astronomers think this year's Leonid shower will be strong, too, especially for observers in Asia Those of us in North America may see plenty of meteors after darkness falls on Nov. 17. The Leonids are particles left in the wake of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Some of the particles produce meteors as they strike our atmosphere and are consumed by friction with air molecules some 60 miles high. Larger meteors can be spectacular, lighting up the landscape like a flash of lightning.