Star Gazers

Hey, Stargazers!

Have you ever seen a meteor shower in the dark night sky?

These celestial events bring us such a beautiful and unique sky-viewing experience, so it's definitely something to take the time to see during peak meteor season.

So first, what exactly is a meteor shower?

When you look into the night sky, meteors look like a bunch of shooting stars, blasting across space, but you're actually not seeing stars.

You're seeing, in fact, tiny pieces of space debris anywhere from the size of a grain of sand to a pebble.

Meteors travel at such high speeds that they create friction as they soar through all of the particles and matter in Earth's atmosphere.

This friction is what gives off that beautiful glow that we see across the night sky.

It's basically burning up.

Now, meteor showers are a bit different than the meteor that you would see on an average night.

The meteors in a meteor shower are more predictable and are made up of comet debris.

Every time a comet passes through our solar system, it sheds some of its debris along its orbit and if the Earth intersects with that comet's path, we get a meteor shower.

We say that meteor showers are somewhat predictable because the Earth tends to return to the same spot in space at about the same time every year.

So let's talk about one of the major meteor showers that we see each year - The Leonids.

The Leonids peak annually during mid-November and they get their name because they appear to come from the constellation Leo the Lion.

You can usually see around 15 meteors per hour during its peak.

They are considered to be some of the fastest meteors that we will see from Earth, traveling at speeds of 44 miles per second.

Every 33 years or so, us viewers on Earth also experience something maybe called a Leonid storm that can peak with hundreds or thousands of meteors seen every hour, depending on your location.

One special Leonid storm occurred in November of 1966 when thousands of meteors fell through the atmosphere during a 15-minute period.

There were so many that they appeared to fall like rain.

How cool is that!

So if you want to see the Leonids or any other meteor shower, the first stop is an astronomy guide.

You can find them online.

According to NASA, the the Leonids are best viewed around midnight local time in mid-November.

Find an area well away from the city or street lights, bring a blanket or a chair and orient yourself with your feet toward the East.

What you're looking for in the night sky is the constellation Leo.

The meteors will seem to come from the stars that make up the lion's mane.

Now, most meteor showers aren't going to produce consistent extravagant displays every time.

Instead, expect to see a steady reliable show maybe with a few surprises.

The Leonids are just one shower and there are plenty more throughout the year at different places and times so make sure to find the peak dates nearest you.

Use a local or online guide to do that.

Remember be patient.

The show will usually last until dawn so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.

Get comfy, bring a friend and enjoy the marvelous night sky together and I'll see you next time, friends, so keep looking up!