The UK-China Leonid Meteor Shower Observation Project

11. Make a comet.

To see why a comet's tail always points away from the Sun, make your own comet! Get a small ball, like a ping-pong ball, and some tissue paper. Cut long strips of tissue paper and fix them to the ball. See if you can find an electric fan, and walk towards the fan, holding your comet. As you get closer, the tail will start to stretch out. If you walk backwards from the fan, the tail will still stretch out. You can also do this experiment in a strong wind. You can't see a real comet until it starts to get near the Sun. The Sun heats it up, and the gases and dust blow away from the Sun. When the comet is moving away from the Sun, its "tail" is actually in front of it!

12. Observe the Leonid Meteor Shower.

This year, it is hoped that the Leonids will be very bright. The Leonids are left behind by the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, and they put on a spectacular display every 33 years. We're hoping that this year they may reach 100,000 per hour. This will occur on the night of 17th - 18th November, 1998.

The sky should be dark, as it will be a New Moon, which won't rise until 06.00 am, but you'll be able to see the radiant from 23.30 pm onwards.

There will be other things to see as well. The red planet Mars will be near Leo, and slightly underneath his back legs. It will be very easy to see, and will act as an excellent reference marker. In Leo itself, there is a bright star called "Regulus", meaning, in Latin, "the Little King". Regulus rises at midnight.

There are other famous stars that you will be able to see as well. This is a list of them, together with their magnitudes. See if you can identify them from their position, and their brightness. Remember, the bigger the number, the fainter the star, and very bright stars have negative numbers.
 

It is suggested that you now look at the observation pages.

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