Astrology

Leonid meteor shower peaks over New Jersey the night of November 16 into 17

The Leonid meteor shower, one of fall's best-known sky shows, reaches its peak overnight November 16 into 17, giving New Jersey stargazers a reason to head somewhere dark after midnight, NJ Today reports. NASA lists the shower as active from November 6 to November 30 and calls it a major shower, though it cautions that rates in an ordinary year can run as low as about three meteors an hour under dark skies, according to the outlet.

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Fast meteors, a bright moon and the source comet#

NJ Today reports the meteors travel near 44 miles per second, a speed that puts them among the year's quickest, and traces the debris to comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Roughly every 33 years Earth crosses a thicker part of that comet's trail, producing a storm of hundreds to thousands of meteors an hour, the outlet reports, adding that this year falls outside that cycle.

The Moon will complicate viewing, with the American Meteor Society putting it at a waxing crescent 39% lit on the peak night and warning that its glow can wash out fainter streaks while it sits above the horizon, NJ Today reports. The Old Farmer's Almanac describes the Leonids as typically an average shower producing 10 to 15 meteors an hour, with meteor storms possible only on rare occasions, and says no storm is expected this year.

Skywatchers get a longer view of each streak by looking away from the radiant rather than straight at it, according to NJ Today.

How to watch, and what else is overhead this fall#

NJ Today reports NASA's guidance for watching: head out around midnight, find a spot far from city and street lighting, and pack a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair against the cold. The agency's other tips, lying flat with feet pointed east and letting eyes adjust for half an hour, are meant to hold skywatchers through a display NASA says runs until dawn.

NJ Today lists Rutgers' observatory, atop the Serin Physics Laboratories on the Busch Campus in Piscataway, Middlesex County, as one dark-sky option. November also brings the Northern Taurids, which the American Meteor Society says peak the night of November 11-12 under a crescent Moon only 4% illuminated, conditions the society calls very favorable, NJ Today reports.

Patch reports the Orionids, which ran from October 2 through November 7 and peaked overnight October 21-22, produced about 23 meteors an hour, capping a stretch of fall showers that also included the Draconids earlier in October.

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