Leonid Meteor Shower Peak: Viewing Tips In Hudson Valley

We suggest you cue Katie Melua’s “Blame It On The Moon” when you’re searching the sky during the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks overnight Sunday and Monday. It will be bright and glaring, but skywatchers throughout the Hudson Valley may be able to work around it, depending on the weather forecast.

Even under a moonlit sky, some of the brightest Leonid meteors should be visible. In typical years, they fly at a rate of about 10 or 15 an hour.

The National Weather Service is calling for mostly cloudy and rainy/snowy skies in the Hudson Valley during the meteor shower’s peak Sunday and Monday, respectively. Stargazers might have a better chance Friday night and Saturday night because skies will be clear to mostly clear.

And here’s some good news as you’re bemoaning the waning gibbous moon: the bright sky won’t cause you to miss a rare and spectacular meteor storm. The Leonids are known for producing some of the most amazing meteor storms in history, but no such event is expected this year, according to meteor experts.

The best viewing times for the Leonid meteor shower are after midnight and before dawn. They radiate outward from the stars that make up the lion’s mane in the constellation Leo, but Bill Cooke, NASA’s meteor expert, told Space.com that skywatchers who stare directly at the radiant point may miss meteors that have longer tails.

Earthsky.org advises skywatchers to look away from the moon for the best chance to see Leonid meteors. You’ll also want to find a dark sky as far away as possible from city lights.

The meteor shower occurs when the Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which litters its orbital path with debris. The debris vaporizes when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the falling stars.

Experts say at least 1,000 meteors an hour must fall for a shower to be considered a storm, which they say occur about every 33 years, the amount of time it takes Tempel-Tuttle to orbit the sun. The parent comet releases fresh debris with every orbit, increasing the likelihood of a meteor storm.

The greatest Leonids meteor storm ever recorded was in 1833, when up to 100,000 meteors an hour were reported. Then 33 years later, a storm occurred in 1866. That caused astronomers to predict another one in 1899, but it didn’t occur.

The next spectacular Leonid meteor storm didn’t occur until 1966, where skywatchers in the southwest U.S. reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors a second (2,400 to 3,000 per minute) for a 15-minute period during the peak, Earthsky said.

Spaceweather.com reported another Leonid meteor storm occurred in 2001, when “thousands of meteors an hour rained over North America and Hawaii.”