(Alcohol interferes with the eyeвЂ™s dark adaption as well as the visual perception of events.) Most importantly, dress warmly, preferably in layers, and bring extra blankets. Take a lawn chair, cookies, fruit, and a nonalcoholic beverage. The binoculars are just in case you spot any smoke trails from the meteors.вЂќ Bring binoculars, but observe with just your eyes because you want the widest field of view. Veteran meteor-watcher and Astronomy Contributing Editor Raymond Shubinski provides a bit of viewing advice: вЂњYour best viewing will be at a dark site miles from any city. Usually, the meteors are white or bluish-white. The high speeds mean they produce more fireballs (meteors bright enough to cast a shadow), and some leave smoke trails that can last a number of seconds. Leonids strike EarthвЂ™s atmosphere at 44 miles per second, the fastest of any meteor shower. Our 2015 encounter with the debris stream from Tempel-Tuttle will last from November 6 to the 30th, but the most intense part (when weвЂ™ll see the most meteors) typically lasts only two to three hours.

The comet itself measures about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in diameter and orbits the Sun with a period of slightly more than 33 years.ДЄs it makes its closest approach to the Sun, it also passes close to EarthвЂ™s orbit. In 1865, astronomer Ernst Tempel discovered the comet, and in 1866, another astronomer, Horace Tuttle, independently found it. Particles in the Leonid shower are debris shed by the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. As the water runs out, you may hear a mighty roar as the water falls on the back of Leo. Poke a hole in the bottom of the Big DipperвЂ™s bowl. To find Leo in the sky, first locate the Big Dipper in the northeast. The Leonids have that name because if you trace all the meteor trails backward, they would meet within the Sickle asterism (a group of fairly bright stars that resembles a backward question mark) of the constellation Leo the Lion. Even then, bright Leonids should shine through nicely. The Moon will be a waxing crescent, so it will only interfere if you observe before moonset, around 10 p.m. The showerвЂ™s peak occurs across North America before dawn November 18. Add that to the normal вЂњsporadicвЂќ rate from meteors not associated with a shower, and you should see a shooting star somewhere in the sky every three minutes on average.ДЄlthough predictions are modest, spikes in activity can occur at any time. In 2015, most scientists who research such events expect a rate of 15 Leonids per hour around the peak. But the longer we watch and the more data we collect, the better the estimates get. Predicting meteor rates, particularly for the highly variable Leonid shower, has been difficult for astronomers through the years. Estimates range from a few meteors up to dozens of meteors per hour at the peak. Yet no one knows for sure what this yearвЂ™s version has in store for us. The annual Leonid meteor shower will appear under dark skies in 2015.

Meteor shower november 11 2015