Leonids 2002

November 18 / 19, 2002
On the night of November 18th / morning of the 19th we will experience the last great meteor storm of this decade. In fact the next Leonid storm won't occur until 2033, so if the weather cooperates this is it for photographing a meteor storm in the lifetimes of many of us.
Now, don't misunderstand. The Leonid meteor shower occurs every November, and there are other meteor showers each year, but we're using the word "storm", because rates as high as 2,000 — 4,000 an hour can be expected. That's about 1 per second.
Meteors are typically tiny particles the size of grains of sand that burn up as they enter the atmosphere. The Leonids are the tail of comet55P/Temple-Tuttle. The storm is caused by the Earth entering one of two major dust trails of the comet, and the reason that we won't have another storm for more than 30 years is that the Earth's orbit won't cross these trails again till then.

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