Dark moonless night, and the clear sky - ideal conditions in order to observe the amazing phenomenon - meteor rain - Leonide, the peak of which is expected in the night from Friday to Saturday (16-17 November 2012).

Fans watch the sky will be able to see the meteorite fall Leonidov, which will erupt in large quantities (about 2 dozen pieces per hour), lighting up the night sky after midnight till dawn Saturday.

Leonids are so named because appear near the constellation Leo (Leo), which at this time of year rises over the Northern hemisphere at midnight and by 3 o'clock the night gets to the Eastern sky.

Like most of the meteor rain, Leonids caused by the fact that the Earth passes through the dust tail of a comet, in this case the comet Tempel-tuttle, which orbit the Sun for 33 years. When a comet approaches the Sun, melting ice releases dust particles, most of which no more than grains of sand.

"During the meteor shower Land resembles a car rushing through the cloud of insects on the highway. The windshield cuts many insects, leaving traces on the glass", says Ben Burress (Ben Burress), astronomer from the space Science centre Cabot in Oakland, California.
Meteor rain (video):

This month, scientists say, meteor rain is especially impressive. Sometimes Leonids produce real meteor storm, within the hour, you can see several hundred "fallen stars".

The last major storm Leonidov took place in 2002, when an hour broke out around 3 thousand meteoritical the most spectacular meteor shower, which made Leonids such mystical, was the rain 1833 when the night sky for hours "fell" several hundred thousand "stars".

Over the last 10 years of serious meteor rain was not observed, while this month, our planet will land again in mark, who left the comet Tempel-tuttle. "Amazingly, these dust particles are materials that are left after the formation of the Solar system and were caught by the comet and transferred here from the far corners of our system, " said Burress. These particles of about 4.5 billion years and our eyes they evaporate, producing a bright light".