Leonid meteor shower set to peak late Sunday night

If you're looking to deprive yourself of sleep before you head to work next week, you're in luck. After last week's meteor streaked across the sky, more interstellar activity will occur this weekend.

The event will ramp up around midnight early on Monday morning and last through sunrise. The biggest thing you will combat is avoiding city light. If you have a star-gazing spot out in the open-country, that will be your best bet.

The leonids' name comes from the Greek mythological beast Leo the lion. This is due to the nature at which the meteor shower fans out like a lion's mane. This flying space rock is also some of the fastest, clocking in at a speedy 158,000 miles per hour. (That's 275 times faster than a commercial airliner and fast enough to circle the earth 144 times in 24 hours. Columbia to Boston in 26 seconds. It's fast.)

10-20 noticeable flashes can be expected per hour, with several harder to notice flares of light in between-- of course the further you are from light pollution, the easier these meteors will be to see.

We're also tracking the effect cloud cover could have. At this point in time, we have good news. We're expecting rain and clouds the first half of the day Sunday, forecast models are delineating clear skies in mid-Missouri during the peak of the meteor shower Monday morning.

If you get any picture or video, feel free to send them into ABC 17!

Happy watching!

-Luke