November 17 Leonids Tonight? Meteor Outburst Ahead?
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This chart from Guy Ottewell illustrates Earth's direction of travel through space (wide arrow). The direction from which the Leonids come as they hit our atmosphere is marked, as is the direction to Sunday morning's moon. You can see that the moon and meteors' radiant point are close together in our sky. Read more.
The peak is likely Monday morning. Best time to watch is between midnight and dawn. In a dark sky, with no moon, you might see 10 to 15 meteors per hour at the peak. In 2019's moonlit sky? We can't predict, but some of the brighter meteors should be visible. Read more.
Exciting news! Some lucky observers might catch a brief outburst of alpha Monocerotid meteors this Thursday night (or Friday morning). And we do mean brief. Peak activity - a rate of 400 meteors per hour - is expected to last 15 to 40 minutes. Details here.
Observatories are great places to view and photograph the night sky. Tips - plus awesome photos - from an astrophotographer's trip to the Very Large Array in New Mexico here.
"The flooding in Venice this past week was extraordinary," writes J. Marshall Shepherd, director of the University of Georgia’s Atmospheric Sciences Program. "The mayor blamed climate change as did many other people around the world … I have noticed that some people make the mistake of framing climate change as an 'either/or' proposition. It is not. It’s 'and.' Let me explain."
The radiant point of the Leonid meteor shower is near the star Algieba in the constellation Leo. But you will see meteors in all parts of the night sky. The moon will be in the way. Try to place yourself in the shadow of a barn or mountain, where you are out of direct moonlight. Read more.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Stephanie Longo captured this lovely image on Friday night. She said, “My husband and I went out to Chaffee County, Colorado, after sunset so see if we might catch a stray meteor before the moon rose. There were a lot of very high thin clouds that seemed to diffuse a lot of colors in the sky and create halos around some of the stars.”
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