The Leonis Minorids meteor shower
Key facts
- Peak
- around 24 October
- Active
- about 19–27 October
- Rate at peak (ZHR)
- about 2
- Speed
- 62 km/s
- Radiant
- Leo Minor (between Leo and the Plough)
- Parent body
- Probably comet C/1739 K1 (Zanotti)
Dates shift slightly from year to year. This year's peak is in the events calendar, and the meteor-shower planner shows how high the radiant climbs from where you live, night by night.
The Leonis Minorids, sometimes called the October Leonis Minorids, are a small, fast shower of late October, overlapping the end of the Orionids.
Recognition. The shower was recognised in the 2000s, when video networks and radar had gathered enough measured orbits to show a compact group arriving from Leo Minor each October. It is now on the international working list of visual showers.
The parent comet. The orbits match comet C/1739 K1, discovered in 1739 by Eustachio Zanotti, an astronomer at Bologna in Italy. The comet was observed for only a few weeks and has never been seen since. It is a long-period comet that takes centuries to orbit the Sun, and its exact orbit is poorly known, but the match with the meteors is close enough that most researchers accept the link. A shower is sometimes the best evidence we have that an old comet is still out there.
The radiant. Leo Minor, the Lesser Lion, is a faint constellation between the Sickle of Leo and the rear paws of the Great Bear. It was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late seventeenth century. The radiant rises in the north-east after midnight and is well placed before dawn.
What to expect. Only about two meteors an hour. They are fast, at about 62 kilometres per second, and mostly faint, but brighter ones do appear. The shower is better caught by cameras than by eye, though experienced observers do record it.
Viewing from the UK. Good. The radiant is high in the east before dawn in late October, and nights are long. The end of British Summer Time in late October also means that the darkest hours come earlier by the clock.
Viewing worldwide. This is mainly a northern shower. From mid-southern latitudes the radiant rises low in the north-east shortly before dawn.
Viewing tips
- Watch in the last three hours before dawn, when Leo Minor is high in the east.
- Find the Sickle of Leo, then look north towards the Great Bear's paws.
- Expect fast, mostly faint meteors.
- Note the direction of each meteor to separate it from late Orionids.
- Run a camera, which captures this shower better than the eye.