â€˜Leonidsâ€™ Loy-Krathong Comet Shower

November 17, 2013

‘Leonids’ Loy-Krathong meteor shower is here at 3.00am. – 4.00am. each morning in a northeast direction near the ‘Leo’ constellation on the night of ‘Loy Krathong’ festival on November 17-18th, but with the full moon night it may be difficult to see, so astronomers suggest to also seeing the ‘Izon’ comet at the end of November 2013, may be better.

THAILAND – November 17th, 2013 [PDN]; – Dr. Saran Posayajinda, (the Deputy Director of National Astronomy Research Institute), stated that on November 17-18th, 2013, our sky will display the phenomenon of the “Leonid Meteor Shower,” which can observed after midnight on November 17th, until the early morning of November 18th, 2013. The expected time that people can see Leonid meteor shower best is 3.00am. – 4.00am in the northeast near the ‘Leo’ constellation, which is the center of dispersal for the meteor shower. But this year it is at the time of a full moon night, so it will be a hard obstacle in observing the meteor shower and the astronomers forecast that we will see approximately 10-20 meteors per hour.

The National Astronomy Research Institute is a public organization of the Ministry of Science and Technology and suggests that people to see “Leonid meteor shower, (also called the meteor shower of Leo constellation), on November 17-18, 2013. At that time it will be a full moon night, so it may be difficult to see; – Therefore the astronomers suggest that you see the Izon comet at the end of November 2013. The ‘Leonid’ meteor shower occurs from the stream of dust of the “55P Tempel-Tuttle” Comet that is in the comet’s orbit and crosses with the world orbit, which has caused the dust of comet to be absorbed with the world’s atmosphere until burning turns it into a meteor shower. The orbit direction of ‘Leonid’ meteor shower is the opposite way to the orbit direction of the world as it revolves around the sun. This causes the very high speed of the dust that is in contact with the world’s atmosphere at 71-kilometers per second. Leonid’s meteor shower is the a shower that has the brightest light, so it is given the name of “The King of Meteor Showers.”

As a suggestion for seeing the meteor shower one should be a place that is very dark with no light, as the meteor shower is very bright and the best method to see the meteor shower in the most comfortable way, is to lie down on the ground to see, as at the time that the meteor shower occurs it will be in the center on the sky exactly overhead. For recording by photography of the meteor shower, the astronomers cannot indicate explicitly on the direction to set up your camera or video recorder, because the ‘Leonid’ meteor shower has a very high speed and disperses all over the sky. Photographers will have to guess or use long- time exposure with camera and wait for meteor showers to run pass the camera.

In addition, in December there will be the ‘Geminid’ (or ‘Gemini’) meteor shower, which it will occur mostly during December 13-14th. 2013, so that people can observe it around midnight of December 13th until early morning of December 14th 2013, but then it will be the time of a nearly full moon (the waxing moon), so the vivid light of the moon will be an obstacle in seeing this meteor shower.

Dr. Saran says that although in this year of 2013 the sky is not favorable for seeing of Leonid and Geminid meteor showers, in this year there are many other vivid comets coming into the inner part of solar system. These include Panstar comet, Lemmon comet, Engkey comet, Linear comet, Lovejoy comet and the Izon comet. The Izon comet is observed mostly by the astronomers all over the world, due to it being forecasted to have very bright light and it will be macroscopic. On November 28th 2013, Izon comet will orbit close to the sun the most, so astronomers predict that the most appropriate time to observe the Izon comet will be during November 15-25th 2013 and December 8-15th 2013. We have to eagerly wait to see whether the Izon comet will be able to go beyond the destructive power of the sun and turn up nearby for the people of the world to get another show. Of all of these heavenly displays the Comet Enkey is perhaps one of the rarest and most mysterious, so it is going to keep everyone guessing.