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The brightness of the Moon for this year's Leonids will hide much of the cosmic display. The last quarter Moon makes spotting the meteors very difficult. To have any chance of seeing the Leonids it is advised to face away from the Moon and to watch as much clear sky as possible. The maximum is expected to be around 02:30 GMT, and in a moonless, dark sky would reach up to 100 streaks per hour.
Leonids
The Leonids meteor shower gets its name because the meteors appear to radiate out of the constellation Leo. The history of Leonid observations begins in the 10th century when the first accounts appeared, indicating that "stars fell like rain."
It wasn�t until the end of the 18th century, on 12 November 1799, that the Leonids were actually observed for the first time by scientists who provided detailed accounts. For almost the next seventy years the source of the meteor shower remained a mystery. In 1867, a significant development in the understanding of the evolution of the Leonids was made.
On 19 December, 1865, French astronomer Ernst Wilhelm Liebrecht Tempel discovered a circular object near Beta Ursae Majoris. After an independent discovery was made by American astronomer Horace Tuttle on 6 January 1866, the comet took the name of Tempel-Tuttle and was calculated to have a 33.17 year orbital period. Using observations from the 1866 Leonid display, an accurate orbit for the Leonids was calculated.
More info: Space Now
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