The Leonid Meteor Shower started November 13 and will last until November 20, and will peak in intensity early morning on November 17.

The best time to view the Leonid meteor shower will be after 1:30 am EST and before sunrise. The meteors will hopefully be visible because the moon will be entering it’s new moon phase just in time for the meteor shower.

According to NASA, every hour 20-30 meteors should be visible during the peak time (1:30 am EST until dawn). Asia should be able to see the most activity at 200-300 meteors per hour NASA has stated, but other astronomers have predicted that it could be as high as 500 an hour during the peak.

You could use the NASA’s Fluximator tool to check the Leonid meteor shower peak in your area. Just enter your area or time zone and it will compute the best meteor shower viewing time for you.

The Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky. The 2009 display peaking on November 17 may produce more than 500 meteors an hour. This is not enough to rate it as a meteor storm which has over 1,000 meteors an hour.

(via The Examiner | Photo credit: NASA)