Overview
- Best viewing is after midnight through pre‑dawn when the radiant in Leo is highest, though meteors can appear anywhere in the sky.
- A thin crescent Moon with very low illumination should keep skies dark and improve visibility this year.
- The shower is widely visible across the Americas, including the United States, Mexico and Argentina, with activity continuing through late November.
- Some forecasts place the strongest activity on the night of Nov. 16–17, while others point to Nov. 17–18, reflecting typical variations in peak timing.
- The Leonids come from debris of comet 55P/Tempel‑Tuttle and produce exceptionally fast streaks around 71 km/s, with rare storm years on ~33‑year cycles last seen in 2002 and projected around 2035.