Meteor shower visible at midnight
Caroline Andrade / DNATuesday, November 17, 2009 9:40 IST
Ahmedabad: The Leonid meteor shower, last observed in 2001, will once again be visible, from midnight on Tuesday to 3.30 am the next day.
Narottam Sahoo, senior scientist at the Gujarat Science City, said that between eight and 10 meteors are expected to be visible per minute, according to predictions made by NASA.
"The meteor shower will be visible just above the horizon, and one will not need binoculars to view the event," he said. The Leonid meteor shower produces an average of around 40 meteors per hour at its peak. It has a cyclic peak year every 33 years, with hundreds of meteors visible every hour. The last such event took place in 2001.
The meteor shower peaks this year on Tuesday and Wednesday, but is visible from November 13 through November 20. The moon is set to be out of the way this year, granting an exceptional view of the Leonid meteors.
As the night progresses, the number of meteors visible is expected to rise and the shower is expected to peak between 3.04 am and 3.14 am in the early hours of Wednesday, numbering hundreds of meteors per hour.
To witness the event, the Gujarat Science City has organised an outreach programme and sky observation at the JNV campus at Dehgam. Around 250 meritorious students from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Daman and Silvassa, who are attending a five-day regional science congress at JNV, will witness the celestial show, along with around 300 local students
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