Free Show In The Night Sky – Leonids Are Back

The meteors are back! The Leonid meteor shower will be putting on a show late Friday night and early Saturday morning. The Northwest won't have moonlight to get in the way of the view but we could be stymied by cloud cover.

Never the less, the streaks will be flying through the sky at a rate of some 10 to 20 meteors per hour. The shooting stars come from the Tempel-Tuttle comet as it swings by and the Earth orbits through its debris trail.

The dust and debris ignite when it hits our atmosphere.  According to Earthsky.org,  the best time to watch the Leonids is usually between the hours of midnight and dawn, . The best viewing conditions should be in the Southwest, the Rockies and along the Southeast coast.

The Leonids appear to be coming from the constellation Leo the Lion in the east, but they should be visible all the way across the sky.