Look! Up in the sky!

I've always been a fan of amateur astronomy and fondly remember nights camping in the Florida Keys as a kid, and REALLY seeing the Milky Way for the first time. In my life I've seen literally hundreds of meteors, (and even once saw a low-angle meteor with my dad that stretched from one horizon to the other), because I actually stand outside in the dark looking for them.

Interested? Well, here's a good chance to see some meteors:

From space.com:

If you live in Western Europe or eastern North America, put a big circle on your calendar around Saturday, Nov. 18. If that night is clear, bundle up warmly and head outside because you may be able to catch a glimpse of an intense, albeit brief display of Leonid meteors.

and THIS from The Planetary Society:

This outburst is tied to Earth's passage through a particularly dense debris trail left by the comet 55P Tempel-Tuttle during its 1932 pass around the Sun. In 1969, Earth passed through this same region with rather spectacular -- though brief -- results (with viewers seeing 2-4 meteors per minute over a 30-minute period). This year's passage probably won't produce quite the same intensity as it did in 1969. Even still, astronomers are predicting anywhere from 100 to 600 meteors per hour.

The expected time of peak activity is 11:45 p.m. EST on the night of Nov. 18. THAT'S TONIGHT! HERE'S some meteor-watching tips! Good Luck!

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)