Astronomy Picture of the Week – Leonid Meteor Shower
Today is the peak of the Leonid meteor shower. It is one of the best meteor showers to watch because it produces an average of 40 meteors per hour during the peak. All meteors seem to come from the Leo constellation, hence it’s name.
This picture features a few meteors from the 2001 Leonid meteor shower streaking over Joshua Tree National Park in California, USA.
Image credit & copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics) & Tony Hallas (Astrophoto)
Unfortunately for me the weather is really bad where I live: it is really cloudy with intermittent rain. So I hope some of you had better luck!
Paul Tomaszewski
Paul Tomaszewski is the founder of CosmoBC. He enjoys programming and writing on topics such as technology, business, astronomy, and many more. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
5 Comments
Paul Tomaszewski
The Leonid meteor shower peaks in mid-November each year. Visually the meteors appear to radiate from the Leo constellation, therefore they are visible anywhere that constellation can be seen, so pretty much all of the northern hemisphere.
Chester Field
I go to the University of Connecticut and want to watch the leonid meteor shower. Where would be the best place to view it?
Chester field
when is the meteor shower and at what time should i be looking outside. I know you gotta look to the east. is it sat and sun or just sun?
Paul Tomaszewski
Merci pour le commentaire! 🙂
(Thanks for the comment even though this is an English blog)
Lannoy
Bonjour,
Le vendredi 19 novembre vers 22 h, en sortant mon chien dans mon jardin, j’ai tout à coup vu une traînée lumineuse descendre du ciel en diagonale au dessus des arbres et terminer sa course quelque part à terre dans un jardin ou dans la forêt toute proche. Cela n’a duré que quelques secondes, mais c’est quelque chose que je n’oublierai jamais.
Overijse, sortie Bruxelles, Belgique