Clear skies tonight mean meteor show will be bright

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published November 17, 2001

OLYMPIA -- Wrap up in some warm clothes, drag out the lawn chairs and fix some hot chocolate or a thermos of tea and get ready for a cosmic light show Saturday night -- well, actually, early Sunday morning.

"I'll set the alarm and go out around 1," said Will Stewart of Olympia.

Stewart will be looking at the Leonid meteor shower, in what might well be the celestial event's most dramatic display for decades or even the next century.

The National Weather Service forecasts mostly clear skies, which should give a good view of the meteor shower, and low temperatures between 30 and 35 degrees.

Bundle up.

The meteors are bits of dust and rock shed by the Tempel-Tuttle comet during its 331/4-year journey around the sun. The tiny particles, moving at about 160,000 mph, vaporize when they enter the earth's atmosphere, creating streaks of light visible to the naked eye.

The particles are the size of grains of sand -- or smaller -- said E.J. Zita, a physicist at The Evergreen State College.

The meteor shower is named after the constellation Leo.

The meteors appear to come from Leo's head, which looks like a backward question mark, in the northeastern sky, Zita said.

They move in every direction.

But the meteors will be easier to see from a dark place, Stewart said. He urged everyone to turn off all outside lights after midnight Saturday to allow those interested a better view of the meteor shower.

Once, about eight or 10 years ago when he was living in Seattle, Stewart escaped the city lights and traveled to Snoqualmie Pass to view the celestial event.

"I laid on my back for about an hour and went home," he said. "Things were happening all the time."

Astronomers predict that at the peak of activity -- around 2 a.m. Sunday -- the meteors will be streaking across the sky at a rate of 1,000 to 2,000 an hour.

But you don't have to wait until 2 a.m. to start seeing the meteors, Zita said.

"You can start looking as soon as it gets dark," she said. More meteors will be visible later when Leo is higher in the sky and when it's darker.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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