Sky Show May Dazzle Earth

Astronomer Mitch Haeri is delighted when the particulars of the cosmos yield a really good light show. The Leonid meteor shower, scheduled to streak through the skies Tuesday, is billed to be just that.

“Any time I take my students out, and they see a single shooting star, they’re thrilled,” said Haeri, perched in his rooftop observatory at the Saddleback College campus. “Imagine seeing the whole sky filled with shooting stars.”

The Leonid meteor shower is caused by the collision of Earth and the streaming debris from the Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 33 years.

“The comet gave birth to this meteor storm,” said Haeri, adding that a comet resembles a “dirty snowball,” a congealed pack of dust clods, sand bits and ice. The trail of debris is created as the comet melts when it approaches the sun during its orbit.

Haeri, a professor of astronomy and physics at Saddleback, will be taking 60 of his students to the Cleveland National Forest for an unfettered view of the meteor shower, far away from distracting city lights.

The best seats in the universal amphitheater will actually be in Asia, where it will be nighttime when the Earth is scheduled to go through the densest part of the debris.

At that peak time--11:45 a.m. Tuesday--it will most likely be sunny in Southern California, so the meteors won’t be visible.

Haeri said he’s noticed a surge of interest in astronomy from the general public, and enrollment for his class in the last five years has dramatically increased.

He chalks that up to a dramatic spate of astronomical events, starting with Halley’s Comet in 1986 and the Hale-Bopp Comet of 1997, which even spawned cults and World Wide Web pages devoted to the bright streak.

“The Hale-Bopp Comet was a little more convenient because it happened after dinner,” Haeri said.

Don’t despair if you can’t make the trek to Asia. The flurry of shooting stars will be visible early Tuesday, but only if you’re willing to rally, dress warm and straggle into your backyard between the wee hours of 1 a.m. and dawn.

The Leonid meteor shower is an annual occurrence, but the event has generated extra hype this year because this is the densest clump of debris that the Earth has plowed through since 1966.

“The meteors will originate from the constellation Leo,” he said. “So, be sure to look toward the eastern sky.”

Haeri said the numbers of meteors visible in the shower will vary. Viewers in Asia could see thousands of shooting stars an hour, while here in Southern California there could be as few as 20 to 60 per hour.

If it’s cloudy Tuesday, however, the show will be invisible. Haeri said not to worry about getting clobbered by stray celestial particles, which occurs very rarely.

Haeri said not to bother with an expensive telescope or bulky binoculars, as the meteor shower is compliments of the cosmos with no viewing apparatus required.

“This shower will be best viewed with the naked eye,” he said. “Just go out to the sky and look up.”

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Fire in the Sky

Earth collides head-on early Tuesday with debris from the Tempel-Tuttle comet. The shooting star extravaganza, which occurs every 33 years or so, put on a spectacular show in 1966 but should produce fewer fireworks this time around. In fact, astronomers are hesitant to pinpoint the place, time or even likelihood of the notoriously unpredictable Leonid shower.

Comet’s orbit: 26 miles per second

Earth’s orbit: 18.5 miles per second

Tempel-Tuttle Comet: 2.5 miles in diameter

Peak time: 11:45 a.m. PST, Tuesday

A Really Big Show?

The Leonid shower should be less dramatic than past years, when Earth was three to six times closer to the comet’s orbit.

Meteor rate per hour:

Normal night: 15

Nov. 12, 1833: 10,000

Nov. 17, 1966: 15,000

Nov. 17, 1998: 200-5,000*

* projected

Saving the Satellites

While star watchers need not worry about an asteroid Armageddon, communications companies are scrambling to protect the 500 satellites orbiting 22,300 miles above Earth. A major concern: The meteor storm could form an electrically charged cloud around a satellite, generating a sudden pulse that short-circuits sensitive on-board electronics.

By Comparison

Most meteor particles are smaller than the diameter of a human hair; that’s about 1/20th the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

When to Watch

While Eastern Asia should get the best view of the Leonids, any part of the globe could get lucky if it’s facing into the stream at night. Regardless of location, the best time to watch the two-hour shower is from 1 a.m. until dawn Tuesday.

What to Look For

* Find Leo in the southeast sky

* Look at a dark spot to the left or right of Leo about halfway up in the sky

* Watch for bright, swift streaks shooting from Leo’s sickle

To put the astronomical size of the meteor shower in perspective:

If the comet were the size of a baseball, the tail would be as wide as 7 football fields laid end-to-end and stretch from New York to Berlin.

Sources: Lance Benner, International Meteor Organization; Donald Yeoman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Sky & Telescope magazine; Aerospace Corp.; PanAmSat; World Book Encyclopedia

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times