Excellent Prospects for November's Meteor Showers

On any clear night you can expect to observe one or two sporadic meteors per hour. These shooting stars are just random specs of space debris not associated with any major or minor meteor stream.

But if you want to increase your chances of seeing more than just a couple of meteors per hour without having to spend an inordinate amount of time doing so, then it's prudent to wait for those dates and times when the Earth is predicted to pass through a known stream of cometary debris.

During the week of November 5-12, the Earth encounters the remnants of Comet 2P/Encke. The Moon will be New in the middle of this week, so it will not hamper seeing as many meteors as possible. Therefore, as long as you position yourself well away from city lights you will perhaps observe five to ten Taurid meteors per hour.

Fortunately the Taurids are slow meteors, entering our atmosphere at only 17-miles per second. Therefore these shooting stars are also bright. More often than not they are yellow in color. Fairly frequently they become fireballs that fragment into multiple meteors.

The best meteor shower display of November, the Leonids, peaks on the night of the 17th to the early morning of the 18th. There seems to be some difference of opinion among researchers as to what level of activity will happen this year.

Some astronomers believe there may be a modest enhancement of activity, while others insist that the Leonids will be back to their normal peak level of from 15 to 20 meteors per hour. Who is correct? We'll know for sure once the Sun rises on the 18th, for the peak is scheduled for about 11:00 pm or so on the 17th. This display occurs on a weekend, so most of you should be able to set aside an hour or two to scan the skies for a few shooting stars.

We are also fortunate that the Moon will set around 11:15 pm and will not brighten the sky. However, with the shower's peak time so early, Leo, the constellation from where the meteors appear to radiate, will be just rising above the east-northeast horizon at that time. So the number of meteors we see here will likely be somewhat less than anyone's estimate.

What we may see is quite a few Earth-grazers around the peak time. These meteors will shoot halfway across the sky as they skim our atmosphere. Earth-grazers are fun to watch, so I encourage everyone to go out and take a look.

Leonid meteors are usually very bright since they blaze across the sky at an amazing speed of 44 miles per second. Most appear to be green or blue in color as they disintegrate in our upper atmosphere. About half of them leave trains of dust which persist for minutes.

Again, make sure you maximize your chances of seeing as many meteors as possible by observing from a dark sky location. Also, be comfortable and stay warm, but try not to fall asleep! Hopefully a few fireballs now and then will encourage you to stay awake.

Keep your eyes to the skies!