Love meteor showers? Many travelers are looking to enjoy the numerous natural events taking place on the planet, like meteor showers. Also known as shooting stars and falling stars, watching meteor showers is something that more and more travelers are looking into nowadays, as they are a truly spectacular event to witness.
According to the American Meteor Society, meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories.
2019 Leonid Meteor Showers
Leonid meteor showers occur right around the middle of November every single year. This year, this particular meteor shower show is expected to peak a little after midnight on November 18th, and will last until the next morning. Leonid meteor showers are named after the constellation Leo the Lion, and is named so because the stars are contained within the Lions Mane. When it comes to just how many showers travelers will see when viewing Leonid meteor showers, it depends on a few different factors.
The first factor is related to the specific time when watching. The second factor is based on just how dark the night sky will be. The third factor is just how clear the night sky will be. While Leonid showers also often create storms, this year no storms are to be expected. The criteria astronomers have put into place that constitute a meteor storm states that there must be at least 1000 meteors occurring in one hour’s time. It is predicted that there will be about 10 to 15 meteors per hour to view this year.
Where can someone view Leonid meteor showers? The Northern Hemisphere provides the best views, while the Southern Hemisphere provides good views. All one needs to do is go outside and look straight up into the sky to view the spectacular event. They are noticeable to the naked eye, which means no special equipment, like binoculars or telescopes, are necessary.
Since viewing meteor showers is a many hour event, viewers should focus on being comfortable during this time. Bringing comfortable chairs to sit in, plenty of foods and drinks to snack on, red filtered flashlights and reading maps and charts is suggested.
Want to see more meteor showers? Here’s a few other meteor shower events you might want to check out.
- Southern delta Aquariids – July 12th to August 23rd
- alpha Capricornids – July 3rd to August 15th
- Perseids – July 17th to August 26th
- Southern Taurids – September 10th to November 20th
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