11/16/2018 – Ephemeris – The Leonid meteor shower will have several peaks in the next few days

Ephemeris for Friday, November 16th. The Sun will rise at 7:41. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 5:13. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:19 tomorrow morning.

We are coming into an extended period where the Leonid meteor shower will be at its peak, or rather there is a chance of up to maybe four peaks as the Earth passes through the debris left by Comet Tempel-Tuttle on past trips through the inner solar system. We are having a pretty bright Moon now, but the best displays of the meteors are going to be occurring in the early morning hours after the Moon sets. The meteors will appear to come from the top of a backward question mark that is the head of the constellation Leo the lion. They will be seen all over the sky, but can be traced back to that point, if it’s a Leonid meteor. The Leonids are most numerous about every 33 years, which is about 15 years from now. Otherwise we get about 15 meteors an hour at peak.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The constellation of Leo the lion and the Leonid radiant for about 5 a.m.  Click on image to enlarge.  Created using Stellarium.