Get ready for the Leonids to put on a great show this year. Last year there was a better meteor shower than in recent years with 100 meteors per hour noted by observers in Asia & Europe. A meteor storm is defined as 1000 meteors per hour or more. With predictions of 500 or more meteors an hour this year’s shower should be a half storm.

Leo Constellation

The meteor shower gets it’s name as the meteors appear to radiate from the Leo constellation. The best time to see the Leonids will be at around 21:30 UT on Tuesday 17th November. Conditions should be good as the moon will be just past new moon phase.

On 17th November the earth will travel through a very dense stream of debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle. This debris stream was laid down more than five hundred and forty years ago in 1466. The earth passed through this stream in 2008 producing a good meteor shower and proving that the stream is rich in meteor producing debris. This year the earth will pass through the 1466 stream again but more to the centre and hence the 500 meteors an hour half storm prediction.

The show won’t be as impressive as the 1999 and 2001 Leonid meteor storms when 3000 meteors an hour were obeserved. That said if we have a clear night we should have a good show from the Leonids this year. Fingers crossed for a cloudless sky on Tuesday or at least that we get some sort of a break in the cloud – that’s the best we can hope from a November sky in Ireland.

Enjoy the Leonids 2009.