Leonid meteor showers

From: Space.com

Leonid Meteor Shower Forecast: What to Expect

by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist   |   November 16, 2014 11:12am ET

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A meteor streaks over Fort Mountain State Park in Georgia in this photo captured by skywatcher James L. Brown, Jr. The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak overnight on Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 17 and 18). Credit: James L. Brown, Jr. View full size image

In recent days, I've been hearing the excited murmurings of skywatchers: "The Leonids are coming!" That is indeed true. In fact, the Leonids are expected to reach their peak before dawn on Tuesday (Nov. 18).
No doubt, some folks are visualizing a sky filled with shooting stars pouring down through the sky like rain. Such meteor storms have indeed occurred with the Leonid meteor shower, such as in 1833 and 1966 when meteor rates of tens of thousands per hour were observed. In more recent years, most notably 1999, 2001 and 2002, lesser Leonid displays of up "only" a few thousand meteors per hour took place.
Those turn-of-the-century Leonid showers — and their accompanying hype — are what are remembered by many. So I think it is important to stress here at the outset that any suggestion of a spectacular meteor Leonid display this year is, to put it mildly, overly optimistic. [Amazing Leonid Meteor Shower Photos]

In fact, the 2014 Leonid meteor shower is more than likely to be a major disappointment chiefly because of the expected lack of any significant activity. It is for this reason then, that although the Leonids are one of the most famous of all the annual meteor displays we certainly would not advertise them as a major shower this year, especially to a newcomer to meteor observing, since they likely will be weak and there probably will be long stretches when not a single Leonid will be seen.
If bad weather or light pollution spoils your meteor display, you can also catch them online in two free webcasts Monday night by NASA and the Slooh Community Observatory. The Slooh.com webcast will begin at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT) and feature views of the night sky from the observatory's telescopes in the Canary Islands and Prescott, Arizona. NASA's webcast begins at 7:30 p.m. EST (0030 GMT) and will include a telescope view from the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
You can watch the Leonid meteor shower webcasts on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh and NASA.

The 2014 Leonid meteor shower will appear to radiate out from the constellation Leo in the eastern night sky, as shown in this sky map provided by StarDate Magazine. Be sure to get away from bright city lights to make the most of your meteor watching experience.