Leonids Meteor Shower 2016 - Watch Leonid Meteor Shower Outburst Live On November 17 Peak!

Mark your calendar and brace yourself for a very exciting astronomical event because starting on Thursday night of November 17th, the Leonids Meteor Shower 2016 will have it's peak as the Earth will be passing through a stream of cloud of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which is the progenitor comet of Leonids, and are expected to produce up to a stunning 10-15 meteors an hour on the night of Thursday until Friday during it's outburst, which many considered to be somehow a meteor storm already. The Leonids are so named because the meteors appear to come from the constellation Leo, but it's comet Tempel-Tuttle that's responsible for the meteoroids. As the comet makes it 133-year journey around the sun, it leaves a trail of dust and debris. Earth crosses this stream each year around the middle of August. The Leonids has been one of the most documented and viewed meteor showers, with recorded observations for 2,000 years, according to NASA. Unlike last year, when expectations are somewhat highly anticipated and turned into a bit of frustration, this time we're hoping that it's going to be the other way around. And 2016 is quite special for Perseid Meteor Shower because according to Astronomer's forecasting the Perseids, it will be firing twice as fast on the night of August 11-12 but with a disclaimer as Bill Cooke, NASA’s head of meteoroid environments, said in a press statement that "Under perfect conditions, rates could soar to 200 meteors per hour," So if the night sky is clear enough you'll be able to see some bright meteors streaking through the sky also using only the unaided naked eye and since the moon will be setting in the early hours of Friday it's a pretty good chance of seeing the meteor shower's peak as the Perseid meteor shower occurs just every month of August when the Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, a comet that orbits the sun once every 133 years. The Perseids have been observed by humans for at least 2,000 years, according to NASA officials.



The meteors are made up of ice and dust shed by Swift-Tuttle, most of which was cast off by the comet hundreds of years ago in which the best time to observe the Perseids will be in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, Aug. 13. "The Perseids streak across the sky from many directions, with theoretical rates as high as 100 per hour. However 2016 Perseid will be an exemption.



The last time the Perseids peak coincided with a new moon was in 2007, making this one of the best potential viewings in years that is, according to NASA but let's see the results and if you live in a big city with a lot of light pollution or even worst it's cloudy because weather is no good, there are still ways to watch the meteor outburst by Perseid because NASA says there will still be meteor activity on Friday and Saturday so you have all the chance and you can watch it live via NASA's streaming videos online which will be live overnight on Thursday and Friday, starting at 10 p.m. ET. So there's really no excuse for you not to see this much anticipated event, who knows your wish may now come true because the numbers of meteors you can see are really high enough on Perseid's peak so the more meteors you see the more chances of wishing. Good luck! :-)

Observing Geminids Meteor Shower 2014 - The Last Spectacular Meteor Shower For 2014

It's December and it's time for the spectacular Geminids Meteor Shower 2014 the last meteor shower for 2014 and is expected to peak this weekend, reaching it's maximum on December 14th when it intensifies during the late evening and with last quarter moon to rise around midnight, no worries because Geminids meteor showers are bright even though this shower favors observing in the Northern Hemisphere, it's also visible from the Southern Hemisphere. The Geminids are forecasted to be at their best on the night of December 13th and the early morning of the 14th having it's peak at around 2AM and since the Geminids tends to be bright it would be even much better if lunar glare is minimized as many as 60 meteors per hour can be seen during that time so it's a must to avoid the the city lights as much as possible. Watch closely for the “radiant” it is the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate or emanate which is almost overhead, next to the constellation Gemini.



Unlike the Leonids, the origins of Geminids Meteor Shower is far unique because when Earth passes through a path of debris stream left about by a comet, the source of the Geminids is quite different, a 3-mile-wide asteroid-like object called 3200 Phaeton. When Phaeton was discovered in 1983, it resembled like another asteroid, but further observations using NASA’s STEREO spacecraft over the last few years have revealed that 3200 Phaeton has a tail like a comet, so it's considered to be a coemt and it’s now called a rock comet but another in between object that seems to be part asteroid, part comet, you know like half-half:-) So get out and see the Geminids tonight and be dazzled by the beauty of the night skies while geminids streaks across the sky leaving some persistent trails and watch out for some fireballs and bolides which is a striking feature of the Geminids.