Leonids

The annual Leonids meteor shower should now be visible and is due to reach its maximum on Wednesday 17 November. Astronomers expect about 10-20 meteors per hour at the peak, which is low to average for this shower. Best viewing time is likely to be the early hours of Wednesday morning, particularly after the Moon sets at around 4.00 am. As always, best meteor viewing needs dark skies away from city lights.  

The Leonids are generally one of the more prolific annual meteor showers, with fast, bright meteors associated with Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The radiant (where the meteors appear to stream from) is at the head or ‘sickle’ of the constellation Leo, and meteors
can be seen each year over a period of several days centred on
approximately 17 November. Some of the meteors leave trails which can last for up to half an hour.

About every 33 years (the period of Tempel-Tuttle), the Leonids produce meteor ‘storms’ when hundreds
or even thousands of shooting stars can be seen. Such storms were seen in 1799, 1833,
1866, 1966 and 1999-2001 (although the expected 1899 and 1933 storms were disappointing). The 1833 storm was particularly spectacular, with an estimated 100,000 meteors per hour. The 1999-2001 storms produced about 3000 per hour.

Taurids and α-Monocerotids

As well as the Leonids, there is also the more minor Taurid meteor shower pair
(Southern Taurids and Northern Taurids). The main peak is coming to a close
now on 12 November, with a rate of about 8-10 meteors per hour, but the
showers continue until about 25 November, their radiants moving slowly
eastward across the constellation Taurus.

Finally, the minor α-Monocerotids shower will be active between 15-25 November, with a peak rate of only about 5 meteors per hour on the evening of 21 November. Very occasionally the shower produces a much stronger outburst but the next such event isn’t expected until 2043.

Image: Leonid shower; photo by Thomas Paulech and Juraj Toth, Bratislava, Slovakia

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