Leonids Meteor shower peak occurs tomorrow Morning

Dear readers and followers,

This year’s Leonids meteor shower peaks tomorrow on the morning of November 18th. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors. The waning crescent moon will not substantially interfere with viewing the Leonid shower.

“We’re predicting 10 to 15 meteors per hour,” says Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “For best viewing, wait until after midnight on November 18th, with the peak of the shower occurring just before sunrise.”

Credit video: +NASA 

Cooke also recommends going to a location away from city lights, dressing warmly, and lie flat on your back and look straight up. No special viewing equipment needed — just your eyes.

Leonids are bits of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every 33 years the comet visits the inner solar system and leaves a stream of dusty debris in its wake. Many of these streams have drifted across the November portion of Earth’s orbit. Whenever our planet hits one, meteors appear to be flying out of the constellation Leo.

A live viewing opportunity is available via Ustream from a telescope at Marshall Space Flight Center. The Ustream feed will be live beginning Monday, November 17th at 6:30 p.m. CST here and will continue until sunrise on Tuesday November 18th.

Update:

enjoy these pictures taken by fans

Source: +NASA


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Alert meteors: Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

Dear readers and followers,

The Delta Aquarid meteor shower is peaking from yesterday night, July 28th into July 29th, and even if you can't catch the cosmic show in person, you can still see live views of the annual shower online.

The online Slooh Community Observatory will host a webcast featuring the Delta Aquarid meteor shower as seen from Arizona and the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa, weather permitting. Experts will also be on hand to discuss the celestial sight. You can watch the Delta Aquarid webcast here at Space.com, or you can check it out directly through +Slooh. The live show will begin at 10 p.m. EDT tonight (02: 00 July 29th GMT). Moreover, you can participate in the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #SloohShower. NASA will also host a meteor shower webcast, if weather allows, on July 29 starting at 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 July 30 GMT). The space agency's Delta Aquarid live stream will feature views of the shower from NASA's Marshall Space flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. You can also watch through NASA directly.

Astronomers predict that the peak of the shower will produce about 16 meteors per hour, Slooh representatives said. While the Delta Aquarid shower usually isn't spectacular, this year it falls during a new moon, meaning the dim "shooting stars" should stand out against the dark night sky. Slooh is planning to use special equipment for the webcast to show as many meteors as possible.

Annual meteor showers are created when Earth passes through a field of debris left in a comet's wake. The particles sloughed off by the cosmic body burn up in the atmosphere, creating the shooting stars people see from dark places on the ground.

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All recorded Perseids from last night in one picture from Ash Vale camera

Credits: UK Meteor Watch

Awesome perseid meteor shower photography from Orcas Island in Washington

Credits: +Cody Limber