Clear Skies in RSM as Leonid Meteor Shower 2015 Peaks Tonight

BY BRENDAN KRISEL (Patch National Staff)

The Leonid meteor shower peak will light up the sky Tuesday, a shower that NASA says produces “some of the fastest meteors out there.”

The shower will peak November 17-18, with the best viewing at about midnight local time, according to NASA. But if you can’t catch the peak, the shower stays active until Nov. 30.

In Rancho Santa Margarita skies are forecast to be mostly clear all week, but nighttime temperatures will be chilly - 44 Tuesday night and mid 50s for the rest of the week.

The moon is expected to be a small crescent that sets at midnight, making for great viewing conditions afterwards. But of course viewing conditions also depend on the weather forecast.

What you need to know about the Leonid peak

The Leonids come from comet “55P/Tempel-Tuttle,” which orbits the sun every 33 years.

At 44 miles per second, the Leonids are some of the fastest around and peak at about 15 per hour.

In 1966, conditions were just right for viewers to see “thousands of meteors per minute” during the Leonids, according to NASA.