How best to observe
The shower’s radiant (for the star chart, see Sky This Month on page 29) does not rise until local midnight and will be highest from your location only before dawn. And luckily, pre-dawn viewing times are the best for meteor observing because that’s when your observing site begins to swing headlong into the debris stream. So the best way to approach this year’s Leonid shower is to prepare for a five-day, early-morning vigil Nov. 16–21.
Imagine Earth as a car speeding down the highway. Just as bugs more frequently splatter onto the front windshield than the rear windshield, so too will Leonid meteors appear to smash more frequently into Earth’s atmosphere as our planet races forward into the comet’s debris stream.
Where should you look? While the paths of shower meteors can be traced back to a point in the Sickle of Leo, most appear as streaks of light some distance away from that radiant. Shower meteors near or at the radiant may appear as a short, swift flash or a point source that swells. Meteors farther from the radiant will take the form of longer streaks of light. Both are remarkable, so split your time between looking at the radiant and slightly away.
In the latter case, it’s best to focus your attention on an area some 20° to 40° (two to four fist-widths) away from the radiant and about halfway up the sky, as you will cover more area. The same advice generally applies for those wanting to image the event.
As a general rule, the farther a meteor is from the radiant, the longer its path. It’s important to know where the shower radiant lies, however, as you will need to trace the meteor’s path back to make sure any meteor you see is not sporadic — a rogue meteor whose path cannot be traced back to a specific source.
A nighttime treat
I can’t expound enough on why these displays are worth your while. If Nov. 19 produces anything at all like the display I saw on the morning of Nov. 16, 1999, it should not be missed.
On that morning, observers at some lucky locations across the globe saw a splendid shower of about 250 fireballs per hour fall from the heavens. And while this was not a storm, the grandeur and magnitude of the meteors will be forever etched on my mind — especially considering that a weird flashing through my bedroom window woke me up that night. Once outside, I saw 30 dazzling fireballs and four other meteors fall from the Sickle of Leo over 45 minutes.
Even if numbers like that don’t materialize this year, given that the Leonids are already noted for their brilliance, any increase in brightness or number will be a welcome sight come Nov. 19.
Ultimately, although we don’t know if any of the 2022 Leonid events will visually shock and awe, it’s best to be prepared for whatever the shower tosses our way. As always, with meteor observing, expect the unexpected!
