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11/13/2015 – Ephemeris – The Leonid meteor shower will reach peak next week
Ephemeris for Friday, November 13th. The Sun will rise at 7:36. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 5:16. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 7:02 this evening.
I’m talking about meteors a lot this week. Well this is about next week’s peak of the Leonid meteor shower. The Leonid meteor shower has spectacular peaks about every 33 years when the responsible litter bug, er… comet is near us and the Sun. The last time the comet names 55P/Tempel-Tuttle passed perihelion, its closest to the Sun was 1998. We are about half way between that and the next perihelion in 2031, so we’d expect it to be a dull year with 15 meteors an hour expected tops, but either the Leonids are getting more unpredictable, or astronomers, both professional and amateur are paying better attention. The main peak is expected Tuesday night around 11 p.m. (4 hr UT Wednesday, November 18), with another peak prior to that in the afternoon (21 hr UT Tuesday, November 17). The radiant, however, will rise just before midnight in northern Michigan. The timing will be better for Europe
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Leonid meteor radiant
11/17/2014 – Ephemeris – The Leonid meteor shower peaks this week
Ephemeris for Monday, November 17th. The sun will rise at 7:41. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 5:12. The moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:30 tomorrow morning.
This week the Leonid meteor shower will again be seen. This is an unremarkable shower most years, but about every 33 years can be spectacular. This year we could see two peaks to the shower. Problem is that the peak activity for the Leonids last only an hour of so. The first is in the afternoon our time today. The radiant rises at midnight and one may be able to spot a few meteors after that. There is another peak calculated to be centered on 4:17 a.m. on Friday the 21st. It is supposed to be debris left by the comet responsible for the Leonids, Tempel-Tuttle back in 1567. Every once in a while the Leonids surprise us. Meteors are the streaks we see when grain sized particles shed by comets zip through the atmosphere at interplanetary speeds.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Leo rising at around 2 a.m. on the morning of November 20. Note the radiant in the sickle asterism of Leo. Created using Looking Up, my own program.
A famous woodcut of the 1833 Leonid meteor storm.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 