Galery

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The Leonid meteor shower is traditionally considered as one of the most attractive meteor showers. Last year, the view was not so impressive because it coincided with the full moon, but this year the half-moon light will not be sufficient to eclipse the shooting stars in the night sky, if there are no clouds, of course.

The Leonids typically "give" between 15 and 40 shooting stars per hour, and every 33 years there is a peak of the phenomenon with hundreds of shooting stars per hour. The most spectacular were the years 1833 and 1966 when the meteorites numbered thousands per hour whereas the last meteor shower was in 2001.

Seen from Earth this meteor stream seems to form in the constellation of Leo, but actually it is dust from the tail of comet Tempel-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1865 and crosses Earth's orbit each November.

When the remains of the comet, typically weighing less than one gram, meet the highest layer of the atmosphere of our planet, at an altitude of 80-130 km, they ignite due to friction, thus forming glowing spheres or shooting stars.