Robert Lunsford is almost guaranteed to see two predicted bursts of shooting stars Nov. 19 when the annual Leonid meteor shower peaks. Hell enjoy one over Europe and another over the United States. Not even weather will be a problem.

Lunsford will be aboard a NASA jet, crossing the Atlantic from Spain.

"I'll be monitoring both Leonid maximums through goggles connected to an intensified camera," Lunsford told an envious reporter the other day. "Flying above the clouds will save the worry of weather, plus the high altitude will reduce the glare from the scattered moonlight."

You are probably nowhere near as lucky. Youll only see one of the outbursts, weather permitting, and youll have to contend with the full effect of a very pesky Moon, which will be just hours away from its full phase. Moonlight will scatter with each molecule of atmosphere, drowning out more than half the meteors that would otherwise be visible from Earths surface.

This being the last Leonid "storm" expected for at least three decades, the show is still likely to be remarkable. And there are ways to combat the Moon. Along with other tips, you can be prepared to maximize your meteor viewing potential.

These tips are a combination of advice given by Lunsford, operations manager with the American Meteor Society, other meteor experts, and personal experience:

1

Practice

Meteor watching is a learned skill. On one or more nights or mornings leading up to the peak (just before dawn on Tuesday, Nov. 19), do some observing to get the hang of it. The Leonids will slowly increase pace in the two or three nights and mornings prior to the peak.

While in some years this can mean 20 or more shooting stars per hour on warm-up nights, moonlight this year dictates you can only expect about five per hour on the night or two prior to the peak.

"Things will not get exciting until the night of the 18^th and the morning of the 19^th," says Bill Cooke, a meteor expert at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center.

Nonetheless, practice (and some patience) will improve your experience at the peak. Try spotting faint meteors out of the corners of your eyes, and if youre lucky enough to be out when a bright fireball graces the sky, look for a possible smoke trail to follow.

During practice, make sure your observing site meets the requirements of Tip #2