Leonid meteor shower to peak Sunday night into early Monday; will be visible on Long Island

The Leonid meteor shower peaks Sunday night and should be on full display for Long Islanders as the Earth orbits through the trail of the comet called 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.

The Leonid show peaks each year in mid-November, and this year, from around midnight until dawn, viewers may be able to see as many as 10 "shooting stars" an hour, according to the American Meteor Society.

Meteor showers appear when debris from a comet collides with the Earth’s atmosphere and bursts into flame. The Leonids are among the fastest meteors: they travel at 44 miles per second, according to NASA.

Leonids — so named because they appear to shoot out from the constellation Leo — create a spectacular meteor storm in cycles of about 33 years, most recently in 2002. This year will be a more modest shower rather than a storm, said Jason Cousins, president of the Amateur Observers’ Society of New York. 

Still, the show should be a good one, because the peak arrives just two days before the new moon, Cousins said. "So that means there won’t be a lot of excess light in the sky."

Best viewing, as always for any astrological event, will be in an area far from artificial lights, such as on Long Island’s beaches, especially on the less populated East End, where the skies are darker. 

NASA advises stargazers to arrive at their viewing spot about 30 minutes before the peak, typically around midnight, so their eyes can adjust to the dark.

"Take a beach blanket, lie down on your back, and just look widely at the sky," Cousins suggested. "Your eye will have a tendency to catch them," he said, because the human eye is designed to perceive motion at the edges of our field of vision. "So if you think you saw one, you probably did."

You will need to dress warmly. The National Weather Service expects Long Island's skies will be partly cloudy with a low around 34. Winds out of the west will reach 16 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph, forecasters said.