Meteor mania: Leonid meteor shower to reach peak activity Thursday night
Julia Johnson
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The Leonid meteor shower will reach its peak activity Thursday evening into Friday morning.
The shower began at the beginning of November and lasts until the beginning of December, though it is recommended that viewers try to catch a glimpse during peak activity.
According to EarthSky, the best time to watch is Thursday night, “late evening until moonrise.”
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Viewers can expect to see up to 10 to 15 Leonid meteors per hour under the right conditions, which it notes is a dark sky.
The Leonid shower occurs roughly every 33 years and is caused by “a debris cloud left in Earth’s path by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a 2.2-mile-wide (35-kilometer-wide) comet,” per Space.com.
Unfortunately, the moon will provide some interference in viewing the shower. The peak occurs toward the beginning of the new moon, meaning some moonlight will illuminate the sky, reports In The Sky.
On Nov. 8, Election Day, a total lunar eclipse, or blood moon, occurred. This type of eclipse happens when the sun, Earth, and moon align and the entirety of the moon is in the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, according to NASA.
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Almanac.com predicts that the coincidence of Election Day and a blood moon won’t take place again until 2394.