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greatest number of meteors before dawn on Saturday, November 17. So tonight is your best time to watch! What's more, Sunday, November 18 may offer a decent sprinkling of meteors as well. If you have a dark sky - far from city lights - you might see as many as 10 to 15 meteors per hour.
• The illustration on the right depicts a Leonid meteor storm in the year 1833. It shows what the Leonid shower might look like in a year that this shower erupts into storm, bombarding the sky with thousands of meteors - sometimes also called shooting stars or falling stars - per hour. Will there be a Leonid storm in 2012? That's one prediction we can make with a fair amount of certainty, and the answer is no. No storm or heightened meteor activity is anticipated for the Leonid meteor shower in 2012. This year's peak rate will probably be around 10 to 15 meteors per hour.
• We see the most Leonid meteors in the dark hour before dawn because that's when the constellation Leo the Lion is found highest in the sky. This year, though, there's another reason why we'll be seeing more Leonid meteors in the predawn sky: the moon is out of the way. Yay!
• In 2012, the slender waxing crescent moon sets beneath the southwest horizon shortly after nightfall, leaving a dark sky for meteor watching! If you look low in your southwest sky after sunset, you might catch the waxing crescent moon and the planet Mars just before they follow the sun beneath the horizon.
• Fortunately, the Leonid shower is peaking this weekend, so why not make a (Continued on page 13)
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