Leonid Meteor Shower: Peak Viewing Times For Maryland

MARYLAND — The Leonid meteor shower — responsible for some of the most prolific meteor storms witnessed — peaks overnight Nov. 16-17. Skywatchers in Maryland may be able to see the bright meteor show if you can get away from city lights.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for partly cloudy skies Monday night, and mostly clear skies after 8 p.m. Tuesday night across much of Maryland. The crescent moon will be only about 5 percent illuminated during the peak, so it shouldn’t interfere too much with your sky gazing.

The Leonids have a reputation for meteor storms when the shooting stars fly at rates approaching 100,000 an hour.

The last big Leonid meteor storm was reported in the southwest U.S. in 1966, and the peak didn’t come close to approaching that number. But the show was still memorable, and those who saw it reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors per second, which amounted to 2,400 to 3,000 per minute.

The meteor shower occurs when the Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which litters its orbital path with debris. The debris vaporizes when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the falling stars.

Experts say at least 1,000 meteors an hour must fall for a shower to be considered a storm, which they say occurs about every 33 years, the amount of time it takes Tempel-Tuttle to orbit the sun. The parent comet releases fresh debris with every orbit, increasing the likelihood of a meteor storm.

The greatest Leonids meteor storm ever recorded was in 1833, when up to 100,000 meteors an hour were reported, according to Earthsky.org. Then 33 years later, a storm occurred in 1866. That prompted astronomers to predict another one in 1899, but it didn’t occur.

The next spectacular Leonid meteor storm didn’t occur until 1966, when skywatchers in the Southwest U.S. reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors a second for a 15-minute period during the peak, Earthsky said.

Will Leo the Lion — the constellation of origin for the annual November sky show — spit out a similar number of meteors in 2020?

Well, probably not, NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke told Space.com. The Leonid meteor shower reliably produces about 10 or 15 shooting stars an hour.

The best time to start scanning the sky for meteors is around 3 o’clock the morning of Nov. 17. While the meteors won’t fly at the amazing rates they did 54 years ago, patient stargazers should be rewarded if they spend a couple of hours outside.

You won’t need binoculars or a telescope; in fact, those devices limit your view to a single spot in the sky. Though the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Leo, they can be seen anywhere in the sky. It’s bound to be cold in many locations, so be sure to bundle up.

"Go outside, find a dark sky, lie flat on your back and look straight up," Cooke told Space.com, "and be prepared to spend a couple of hours outside."