Look for Leonid Meteor Shower this Weekend

If you’re looking for something to watch this weekend, try looking up at the night sky. The Leonid meteor shower will put on a good show overhead for stargazers of all ages and experience. Named for the constellation Leo, in 1966, the annual meteor shower produced as many as a thousand fireballs per minute.

This year the intensity is expected to be considerably lower at about 20 per hour, but should be fun to watch just the same. The Leonid meteors are actually pieces of the ice and rock from the comet Temple-Tuttle which orbits the sun, passing by the earth every 33 years (most recently in 1999). It is during those close passes that the intensity is much higher.

So where and when to look to see the Leonid meteor shower? According to the experts, the event should be visible after about 10:30pm Saturday night and into the morning Sunday. Peak should be about 3 AM. Viewers should look toward the constellation Leo in the night sky.