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Leonid meteors peak before dawn Saturday, November 17

http://earthsky.org/tonight/leonid-meteors-peak-before-dawn-saturday-november-17
I don't have clear skies here locally, but perhaps you do…
"As seen from mid-northern latitudes, Leo rises over eastern horizon around 1 a.m. That’s why you’ll see more meteors after midnight. After rising, Leo then swings upward and westward throughout the morning hours after midnight. It climbs to its highest point in the southern sky around 6 a.m."

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Leonid meteors peak before dawn Saturday, November 178 | Tonight | EarthSky
The 2012 Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak before dawn on Saturday, November 17. The radiant point of the shower is in the constellation Leo the Lion.

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13 thoughts on “Leonid meteors peak before dawn Saturday, November 17”

  1. You should ahve had hours left of the most active portion of the meteor shower +Eileen Heath.  Most meteor showers offer some meteors for days or weeks, and as I mentioned when posting my Leonid meteor photo, although the peak of the shower was a few hours past, the International Meteor Organization notes that there may be a second peak of activity a couple of days later Nov 19/20:

    "The most recent perihelion passage of the Leonids' parent comet, 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, in 1998 may be nearly 15 years ago now, but the shower's activity has continued to be fascinatingly variable from year to year recently. This year seems unlikely to produce enhanced rates, but there may be more than one peak. Apart from the nodal timing above, Mikhail Maslov has suggested that there could be a peak with ZHRs of ∼ 5—10 at 21h UT on November 17, followed by another increase to ZHRs of ∼ 10—15, probably of below-average brightness meteors, on November 20, at ∼ 06h UT (the latter due to the 1400 AD dust-trail)." 

    "ZHRs for the nodal peak are liable to be "normal", so probably about 15±5. November's waxing Moon is excellent news for either date, as it will set before or soon after the time the Leonid radiant first becomes usefully-observable, by local midnight or so north of the equator, afterwards for places further south. All observing methods can be employed. While these potential maximum timings do not exclude all others, if they prove correct, the two November 17 ones would be best-detectable from North American, and Middle East to Asian longitudes respectively, while that on November 20 would be similarly available from places between eastern North America east to extreme western North African longitudes."

    Here on the West Coast of North America, if the skies are clear I'll try to capture that second peak as the radiant point of the shower is rising above the horizon to the East, in the 10 pm – midnight time frame.

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