Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

    Monday 17th to Sunday 23rd November 2025

     

    The evening of Monday 17th sees the peak of the annual Leonids meteor shower, with the actual peak occurring at 6pm.  Around the peak, the shower can produce up to 15 shooting stars per hour - this is known as the Zenithal Hourly Rate.

     

    However if you go outside at that time, you won't see a thing, as the constellation of Leo (where the radiant point of the shower is located, near the lion's head) will still be below the horizon.  You will need to stay up late, when the constellation appears above the eastern horizon from after midnight on the Tuesday morning.

    That's close enough to the peak and as a bonus, there will be no light pollution from the Moon, which will still be well-below the horizon.  Of course you don't need a telescope to see the spectacle, but if you want to do a bit more exploring, Jupiter will be located a little above and to the right of Leo, with the constellation of Orion further to the right.

    Aiming a telescope at Jupiter will often reveal its four Galilean moons, unless one of them is hidden orbiting around the other side of the planet at the time.  Try looking at Jupiter around 2am on Friday 21st to catch the shadow of two of its moons, Io and Callisto, simultaneously being cast onto the planet's surface.  At that time, Jupiter will be found towards the east again, like on the Monday night and you should be able to see all four moons - the exact same sight that Galileo witnessed back in 1610 when he first-realised that the moons were orbiting around the planet - back then, everyone thought that all heavenly bodies circled the Earth!

    www.starsoversomerset.com

    Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium

    Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2025

     

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