The Leonid meteor shower is happening this week

It peaks Tuesday night into Wednesday morning from November 17 to November 18. You won’t need to worry about getting hold of any fancy star-gazing equipment either because the shower will be easily visible to the naked eye.

This week, stargazers and everyone alike will be treated to the Leonid meteor shower, which only happens every middle of November during the year. The shower occurs when Earth moves through the dust trailing behind the comet Tempel-Tuttle, and small pieces of debris – roughly around the size of a pea – burn up in our atmosphere. In fact, about 20 meteors per hour are expected through the peak, which makes it more active than the recent Taurid meteor shower.

The term Leonid was coined because the meteor shower’s radiant, or the point in the sky where meteors emerge, lies in the constellation Leo.

For those lucky enough to be unaffected by clouds, you’re going to have a pretty great view, because the Moon will only be a waxing crescent and will leave skies pretty dark. And, as said above this year also the meteors are expected to have enhanced activity. Although a lot of them will be too small to be visible as meteors.

Leonids are rather speedy, striking Earth’s atmosphere at a whopping 158,000 miles per hour, the fastest of any meteor shower. Meanwhile, good viewing conditions will be experienced in areas like Southern California because of clear skies. The CEO of Dubai Astronomy Group told Emirates 24/7: “The most ideal time to catch the Leonids event is between midnight and 3am, which is when the Earth has rotated to a front facing position of the meteor shower”.

“Until then, a few believed meteors were an atmospheric phenomenon, the belief of which lended the term “meteorology” to the study of the weather”, Slooh said.