MANILA, Philippines - Meteor enthusiasts should watch out for the Leonids meteor shower this weekend, the state weather bureau yesterday said.
“The Leonids can produce about 10 meteors per hour around the late hours of Nov. 17 until dawn of the following day,” Nathaniel Servando, administrator of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), said.
He said partly cloudy skies will prevail over the country tomorrow and Friday but the public can still have a good view of the meteor shower.
PAGASA said that unlike in previous years where Leonids produced hundreds of meteors, astronomers and experts do not predict many meteors this year.
The last quarter moon on Nov. 18 would also interfere with meteor viewing, the weather bureau said.
The Leonids meteor shower is created by bits of debris left behind by repeat passages through the inner solar system of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, PAGASA said.