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Leonid meteor shower peaks early Tuesday
FILE: This image taken with a meteorite tracking device developed by George Varros, shows a meteorite as it enters Earth's atmosphere during the Leonid meteor shower November 19, 2002.
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The annual Leonid meteor shower will be lighting up the night sky late Monday through the early Tuesday, though not as much as in previous years when thousands of meteors have been seen. There will only be about 10 to 15 meteors per hour, "a mild but pretty sprinkling," according to NASA forecasters.
The best viewing will be from midnight with the shower's peak coming right before dawn Tuesday. NASA recommends going away from city lights. No special equipment is necessary to view the meteor shower, but this being Los Angeles, getting away from the lights is not the easiest thing to do even at the Griffith Observatory. For those that can't make it outside, NASA will be streaming the shower until sunrise Tuesday.
According to NASA, Leonids are pieces of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which enters our inner solar system every 33 years and leaves trails of the meteors.
The LA Times has a map of precisely where to look in the sky for the meteors — they'll appear to be shooting out of the Leo constellation, in between the Big Dipper and Jupiter.
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