The Leonids is an average shower, producing up to 15 meteors per hour at its peak. This shower is unique in that it has a cyclonic peak about every 33 years where hundreds of meteors per hour can be seen. That last of these occurred in 2001. The Leonids is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1865. The shower runs annually from November 6-30. It peaks this year on the night of the 17th and morning of the 18th. The second quarter moon will block many of the fainter meteors this year, but if you are patient you should be able to catch quite a few of the brightest ones. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Leo, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
see http://cantonbecker.com/retrograde for details…
This meteor outburst / storm happened in 1925, 1935, 1985, and most recently in 1995. There’s debate as to whether or not anything spectacular will happen tonight. If we’re lucky, between 100 and 1,000 meteors per hour are expected during this event that might last somewhere between 15 and 40 minutes.
Because the event is so short-lived, folks in the western USA will be out of luck. If you live in the middle or eastern North America, South America, Europe or Africa, be sure to look up! You could witness the event of a lifetime…
Look in the direction of Monoceros, „The Unicorn”.
A conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be visible on November 24. The two bright planets will be visible within 1.4 degrees of each other in the evening sky. Look for this impressive sight in the western sky just after sunset.
Hello, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Canton (canton@gmail.com) will be adding additional 2020 calendar events (meteor showers, etc.) during the last week of 2019. Feel free to email him any suggestions.
If you added this ICS calendar feed as a „subscription” instead of a one-time import, then new events should automatically flow into your calendar once they are made av
ailable. Moon phases are already in place.
Was this calendar helpful to you? Visit https://cantonbecker.com/astronomy-calendar/ to see how you can support this project for free.
The Geminids is the king of the meteor showers. It is considered by many to be the best shower in the heavens, producing up to 120 multicolored meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1982. The shower runs annually from December 7-17. It peaks this year on the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th. Unfortunately the nearly full moon will block out many of the meteors this year, but the Geminids are so bright and numerous that it could still be a good show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Gemini, but can appear anywhere in the sky.