HOUSTON — There’s a spectacular sight you can catch in the sky coming up later this week. It’s the Leonid meteor shower and goes from November 15 through November 17, peaking early Tuesday morning.
You may want to put on a pot of coffee because your best bet for catching shower activity is after midnight and before dawn Tuesday. For best viewing, find a dark spot without any light sources nearby, and hope for clear skies and no clouds.
Wherever you go, be prepared to stay for a while.
How to watch the Leonid meteor shower
The best way to view the shower is to have your feet facing east while you lie flat on your back and look up. And be patient. Meteor rates are often as low as 15 per hour, according to NASA.
There will be a very thin crescent moon, which is good news because that's less light to wash out the fainter shooting stars.
About Leonid meteor showers
Leonid meteor showers happen every year from around November 6 to November 30. They produce explosions of light and color that last longer than average meteors. They’re known for their fireballs and earthgrazer meteors, which are meteors that streak close to the horizon line and have long, colorful dust trails.
While the one Tuesday will be a shower, every 33 years or so we get to witness a Leonid 'storm,' which has hundreds to thousands of meteors visible per hour. The last one was in 2002.
Leonids are bright and can be colorful. They’re also very fast, traveling at 44 miles per second.
About meteors
From NASA: Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids. When comets come around the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits. Every year the Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.
Up next
If you miss the Leonid meteor shower, you won't have to wait long for the next one. The Geminids, one of the strongest of the year, peaks on December 13-14.