Meteor show expected

For those in the know, November means meteors.

Cosmically inclined folks around New England watched the cloudy sky anxiously yesterday, hoping that by midnight, when the annual Leonid meteor shower is scheduled to commence, all would be clear for the celestial show.

"It's a natural phenomenon. Some people look at waterfalls, other people look at women in bikinis. I can't account for human taste," said Tom Whitney, president of the Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association. "Why look at it? . . . Because it's there."

The Leonids occur every year during roughly the third week in November when the Earth passes through the stream of meteor particles left in the wake of the Tempel-Tuttle comet. A typical shower, viewed in a clear sky far from urban lights, brings about 10 to 20 meteors an hour. But on rare occasions, heavy showers render the night sky an astronomical symphony with thousands of twinkling white meteors whizzing by every hour.

This year, the Earth is passing through a denser-than-usual trail of Tempel-Tuttle debris that should result in high meteor activity, said Brian Marsden, a senior astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge.

The rush of meteors was expected between 11:45 p.m. yesterday and 1:30 a.m. today, and during the same times late today and early tomorrow. Meteor forecasters were predicting 100 to 200 meteors an hour during the peak, said Alan MacRobert, senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, based in Cambridge and a Globe columnist .

Sky gazers in New England, eastern New York, and eastern Canada have the best chance of catching the action in North America because they will most directly face the oncoming shower, MacRobert said.

But there is a complication: The National Weather Service yesterday predicted partly cloudy skies in southern New England and mostly cloudy weather in northern New England last night and all weekend. "It's probably not going to be an ideal time to view any meteor showers," said meteorologist Charlie Foley.

The Leonids (so named because they appear to emanate from the constellation Leo) are mostly just dust specks that morph into firework-like brilliance after colliding with the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 44 miles per second.

Whitney and his club members planned last night to head to Mt. Pollux just outside Amherst, as long as nature cooperated. "We'll do it if the sky clears," he said, recalling the spectacular show two years ago. "I counted 2 to 3,000 an hour. It was incredible."

Larry Moss, member and former president of the Aldrich Astronomical Society in Worcester, said his group might head out for a Leonid sighting tonight. But he wasn't holding his breath.

"I'm enough of a pessimist . . . for whatever crazy reason, Saturday nights tend to cloud up on us," said Moss, who recommended Baxter State Park in Maine and the Berkshires as ideal viewing locations.

For Whitney, meteor showers are OK, but his first love is planets.

But the Leonids, said Whitney, might just be a simpler astronomical pleasure.

"You can see them with your naked eye," he said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.