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Friday, November 16, 2007 According to predictions, the famous Leonid meteor shower will peak this weekend. The best viewing is predicted to be during the wee hours before dawn on Sunday, when you might see as many as 10 to 15 meteors per hour. But meteor showers are notorious for defying predictions, so don’t discount Saturday and Monday mornings. And don’t be too surprised if the Leonids surpass or fall shy of the predictions. Even though the first quarter moon will light the evening sky, moonlight shouldn’t bother this year’s Leonid meteor display. As a general rule, the fast-flying Leonid...

The annual mid-November meteor shower, Leonid, is expected to light the skies on Saturday. This year maximum will be of about 12 meteors per hour at around 11 pm EST. North Americans will be able to see the dazzling event more clearly than others, due to the fact that the moon will set rather early and will make the perfect dark setting for the light show to start. Leonid meteor showers took place from 1999 until 2002, amazing the sky watchers when they were able to see close to a thousand meteors per hour. The meteors reach huge speed, chasing...

Live here in Maryland, was not planning to start formal observing till 1AM..poked my head out the window for 5 seconds at midnight and saw the longest-trained meteor I've EVER seen (and I've spent a fair amount of time meteor-observing, though I'm not hardcore.) Was a Leonid "earth-grazer" fireball that literally extended from horizon to horizon, and passed directly overhead...bright green, only exceeded in brightness by some of the fireballs from the Leonid Fireball Storm of 1998 (some of which lit up the countryside like daylight when they exploded.) Leo is barely below the horizon here...you get "earth grazers" when ...

In the wee morning hours of Sunday, November 18, the Leonid meteor shower might intensify into a dazzling meteor storm, with "shooting stars" continuously blazing trails across the night sky. Viewers across the United States are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the storm, which could be among the most spectacular sky events of the 21st century according to the latest scientific predictions. more...

Probe to 'look inside' asteroids By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff in Paris, France Studies of asteroids would aid Earth-protection strategies A new space mission concept unveiled at a Paris conference aims to look inside asteroids to reveal how they are made. Deep Interior would use radar to probe the origin and evolution of two near-Earth objects less than 1km across. The mission, which could launch some time later this decade, would also give clues to how the planets evolved. The perceived threat of asteroids colliding with our planet has renewed interest in space missions to understand these...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 November 25 A Late Leonid from a Sparse Shower Credit: Mauna Kea CONCAM, The Night Sky Live Project Explanation: The 2003 Leonids Meteor Shower contained relatively few meteors. As expected and unlike the last few years, the Earth just did not pass through any dense particle streams left over by the Sun-orbiting Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Preliminary reports had the peak meteor rates only as high as about one...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 22 Full Moon, Lake, and Leonids Indeed Credit & Copyright: Image: Blake Suddeth; Haiku "Leonids Indeed": Susan Ode Explanation: Full of itself moon - EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK AT ME.What's 33 years? And for those who need a story ... photographer Blake Suddeth took over a hundred digital pictures early Tuesday morning in order to capture this single, gorgeous 10 second exposure of a "Leonid of the...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 20 Leonids vs. The Moon Credit & Copyright: Frank Sapp Explanation: Beautiful and bright, the 2002 Leonid meteors battled against glaring moonlight. This winning example, from Tuesday morning skies above Laughlin, Nevada, USA, finds an undaunted Leonid streaking between the familiar constellation of Orion (left) and an overexposed full Moon. As anticipated, the Leonid shower packed a double punch on November 19 with planet Earth plunging...

Spectacular Meteor Shower Expected Mon Nov 18, 9:51 AM ET Add Science - AP to My Yahoo! PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - This week's Leonid meteor shower may be the largest such display until the end of the century, with possibly hundreds of meteors visible in the sky Tuesday morning. The annual meteor shower usually delivers only a few visible meteors. But hundreds per hour might be visible as they burn up in the atmosphere this time, scientists say. "Even with the full moon, this year's Leonids will probably be better than any other for the next hundred years," Don Yeomans,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 16 Tempel-Tuttle: The Leonid CometCredit & Copyright: T. Puckett (Puckett Observatory) Explanation: Star trails streak this composite time exposure of comet Tempel-Tuttle recorded by Tim Puckett on January 26, 1998. Then passing through the inner solar system on its 33 year orbit around the Sun, Tempel-Tuttle brightened unexpectedly, but binoculars or small telescopes were still required to visually observe it. Tempel-Tuttle is also called "the Leonid...