Leonids returning

November 15, 2002 | Amateur Science | By: Mark VandeWettering

Last year I carted my wife and son out to view the Leonic meteor shower, and we were blessed with
a pretty spectacular show. I went out sometime after dark (my house is actually a pretty dark
location, at least for a suburb of Oakland) and didn’t see any in the first five minutes when I viewed
at 7:00. At 8:00, similar results. At 9:00, I saw my first one, and decided to load up some chairs and
go to the Chabot Science Center. We weren’t alone: several thousand people showed up, and were
treated to a very nice meteor shower: the best of my memory. We returned home slightly after
midnight, and I watched more meteors streak accross the sky from my backyard.

It’s that time again, so I’ll probably be out doing the same thing this year. Check out the information
on space.com for more information.