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Fireballs are about to streak across the night sky, so look up! 🌠 The Leonids return this month, flying from November 6th through the 30th and peaking overnight on the 16th into the 17th. Even better, the first quarter moon dips below the horizon around midnight on peak night. That means darker skies just when the Leonids hit their stride, so grab a spot and start counting meteors.

Almost on this day 226 years ago (13 November 1799) the moonlit skies over North and South America erupted in an intense meteor storm - the Leonids! This is the account from explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who saw the storm from Cumaná, Venezuela: “From half after two in the morning to daylight, we witnessed that most extraordinary luminous meteor, which was nothing less than a sprinkling of fire falling from the skies. Thousands of bolides and falling stars succeeded each other during four hours, and it was impossible to count the fiery globes. The Indians in the plains were seen falling on their knees, imploring the mercy of Heaven. The whole firmament seemed in flames, and long phosphorescent streaks covered the vault of the sky.” “Never had I seen a phenomenon which made upon me so deep an impression. The meteor-start poured down in torrents. Their number seemed to exceed that of the stars in the firmament. The light was so vivid that the ground was sensibly illuminated. The brands darted in all directions, some leaving behind swaths that lasted several minutes. The greater part took their origin in a point near the constellation Leo.” — Humboldt, Personal Narrative, book IV, chap. X (events of Nov. 1799)