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The Leonid is to actively play its night sky shower this week from Nov. 17 -20, the ideal observing time being is calculated in between 2:00am and the daybreak, predicts the Guangdong (China) Astronomical Society.

This Leonid meteor shower, which could be traced back in the year 1001 D.C., will reach its maximum from midnight Nov. 17 to morning Nov. 18, says the society.

It is a rare year this year worldwide for none and professional astronomers to observe Leonid meteors sky journey with naked eyes.

The Leonids were in a periodic fierce activity since 2002. Although no "storm" level activity is predicted in the next few years, above-normal displays may be present through 2006, according to the American Meteor Society.

History of the Leonid shower

One of the first scientific accounts of a Leonid storm was by Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian aristocrat, explorer and polymath. He witnessed the 1799 storm from South America during his exploration of the Orinoco. His account of meteors pouring from the sky is but one tiny part of the multi-volume report of his expeditions.

It was the 1833 Leonid storm witnessed over North America that resulted in the modern study of meteors. This event led to the recognition of Leonid storms in historical records going back to 902 AD and to the 33 year periodicity in their occurrence. High activity from the Leonids can happen over several years every 33 years or so, but away from these years, the Leonid rates are typically only a few tens of meteors per hour at best.

In 1866 a Leonid storm came on cue, with good activity also in 1867 and 1869. Around this time another major advance in meteor science took place. Comet searchers found two bright comets, one became named Swift-Tuttle and the other Tempel-Tuttle after their discoverers. In both cases, the orbits of the comets around the Sun were shown to be basically identical to known meteor showers, the August Perseids in the case of comet Swift-Tuttle and the Leonids in the case of Tempel-Tuttle. It was clear that shower meteors were directly related to comets. (source: Astronomical Society of Australia)

Editor: Catherine

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