Major meteor shower building to a peak in skies over Kamloops, Okanagan | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Major meteor shower building to a peak in skies over Kamloops, Okanagan

This Leonid meteor was spotted in Washington in 2020.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Wikimedia Commons/ Rocky Raybell

Sky watchers in Kamloops and the Okanagan might want to mark their calendars for the famous annual Leonid meteor shower.

Considered by NASA to be a major shower, the annual Leonid meteor shower can be seen from Nov. 3 to Dec. 2 with the most visible meteors appearing on Nov. 18. Roughly 15 per hour.

Leonid meteors are known for being bright, colourful and fast with velocities of 71 kilometres per second, and for their fireballs and Earth-grazer meteors, according to NASA. Fireballs are brighter explosions of light, where Earth-gazers streak close to the horizon and have long tails.

The Leonid meteor shower is famous for meteor storms, where roughly every 33 years viewers have a chance to see hundreds of thousands of meteors streak across the sky every hour, depending on the viewer’s location.

Meteors can be seen when Earth passes through dust and debris left by comets where the bits disintegrate in flames when they hit the atmosphere.

Leonid meteors come from debris by comet 55P/ Tempel-Tuttle, and appear to radiate from the constellation Leo.

The best way to view the Leonids is from a location far away from city light pollution starting at midnight.

READ MORE: SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS: Optimistic outlook for Kamloops, Okanagan ski conditions this winter

This year during the Nov. 18 peak there will be some competing light from the waning moon.

Unfortunately for Thompson-Okanagan sky watchers looking to view meteors over the long weekend, Environment Canada is calling for a mix of clouds and rain every night into Tuesday, Nov. 12.

If you have spectacular night sky photos you want to share, send them to news@infonews.ca.


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