Meteor Storm: Monday night Tuesday morning may be last chance to see a Storm for nearly 100 Years.

5,000 to 25,000 meteors per hour likely on November 18/19, 2002. The Leonid meteor shower are remnants of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. A perturbation by the planet Jupiter in 2029, will change the orbit of Tempel-Tuttle away from the Earth. You may have to wait until 2098, 2099 or 2131 to see the next Leonid storm.

The Earth will pass through two dense swarms of meteors on the nights of
November 18th and 19th producing a spectacular, once in a lifetime show!
At the peak, around 5:30am EST Nov. 19th, we could see as many as
10,000 meteors per hour, according to predictions from NASA. An earlier
peak around 11:00 pm on the 18th could produce around 6,000 meteors
per hour.

The Leonids come from the remains of comet Temple As the Earth passes
through the comet debris, some of the pieces enter Earth's atmosphere and
burn up. We see these as meteors, or shooting stars.

The StarrySkies Network has created a special set of web pages covering
the upcoming Leonid Meteor Shower. The URL is
http://starryskies.com/The_sky/events/meteors/ It is an excellent entertaining
resource for educators, students and the general public. We have also
created a flyer for use by anyone or any organization promoting
this special Leonid Meteor Storm event. The flyer is at
http://starryskies.com/leonid-flyer.pdf

"Most likely the last opportunity in our lifetimes to see a stupendous
"storm" of Leonid meteors... The Leonid meteors at their peak are capable
of producing the grandest display of celestial fireworks known to man. For
about an hour or so the heavens seem to burst open and pour forth a deluge
of shooting stars. The spectator stands agape, his mind numbed, his eyes
dazzled, and his soul thrilled by the sight of shooting stars appearing by
the hundreds... perhaps even thousands per hour." Joe Rao