Leonid Meteor Shower Expected This Weekend
The best entertainment this weekend is the dazzling Leonid meteor shower. The annual cosmic fireworks display peaks on Friday evening or Saturday morning. The Leonids aren’t usually the most crowded meteor shower—you can expect to see about 15-20 fireballs per hour—but what they lack in quantity, the Leonids make up for in intensity. They are known for their effectiveness, color and durability. The Leonids often appear close to the horizon, and a super-bright fireball lighting up the night sky is always possible.
Why 2023 is a great year to see the Leonids meteor shower
Optimal meteor viewing depends on the amount of light reflected by the Moon, and this year the Moon is helping that happen. It will appear as a thin waxing crescent on Friday evening, so the sky will be relatively dark, allowing for more shooting stars to be seen than in full moon years. (Unless it’s cloudy, of course. In that case, you’re out of luck.)
The Leonids will likely start out slowly, but will become more frequent as the night goes on. Many of them seem to come from the constellation Leo, but they can come from anywhere in the sky. For best results, find a location with as wide a view of the sky as possible and as little light pollution as possible. Lie with your feet facing east and look up as far into the sky as possible. Once your eyes adjust to the darkness, you should see some impressive shooting stars. Bonus points added for hot chocolate and cuddly dog.
There’s always a chance of a meteor storm
The Leonids put on a particularly spectacular show every 33 years or so, and we’re a long way from that point in the cycle, so we should see a cool but not mind-blowing amount of meteors—but who knows. Sometimes cosmic geometry works out perfectly and leads to unexpected meteorite surprises.
For example, no one expected the Leonid rain of 1833. On November 12-13 of the same year, the Leonids finally failed. It is estimated that more than 100,000 meteors were visible per hour over North America for nine hours. The performance was so impressive that Frank Perkins and Mitchell Parish were inspired to write the jazz standard “The Stars Fell on Alabama,” and Mormon founder Joseph Smith wrote that it was “a literal [sic] fulfillment of the word of God.” Smith also wrote that the storm heralded the imminent second coming of Christ. It seems he was wrong, but I can understand why he was wrong: imagine seeing 100,000 shooting stars in the sky in an hour. You would think that Jesus would return too.
What causes the Leonids meteor shower?
The shooting stars we see during the Leonid meteor shower are caused by the Earth passing through the middle of the dust trail left by Comet Tempel-Tuttle each year when the Earth reaches that part of its orbit. Pieces of dust and rocks crash into our atmosphere and burn spectacularly, causing a light show.