--- title: Where and When to Watch the 2017 Leonid Meteor Shower description: The Leonid meteor shower will take place from Nov. 17 to Nov. 18, 2018. People in many regions will have great views of the meteor shower. canonical: https://time.com/5024174/leonid-meteor-shower-2017/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-14T20:26:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:14:46.508Z article:section: Science og:title: The Leonid Meteor Shower Is This Weekend. Here Are the Best Places to See It og:description: The annual event starts Nov. 17 og:url: https://time.com/5024174/leonid-meteor-shower-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2552780c16a05e1/6988e5cb8fd2ee3926359a28/leonid-meteor-shower.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Leonid meteor shower lights up the sky above C og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Leonid Meteor Shower Is This Weekend. Here Are the Best Places to See It twitter:description: The annual event starts Nov. 17 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2552780c16a05e1/6988e5cb8fd2ee3926359a28/leonid-meteor-shower.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Leonid Meteor Shower Is This Weekend. Here Are the Best Places to See It  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 14, 2017 8:26 PM UTC  The Leonid meteor shower lights up the sky above China's Great Wall The Leonid meteor shower lights up the sky above China's Great WallSTEPHEN SHAVER—AFP/Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 14, 2017 8:26 PM UTC The annual Leonid meteor shower will be crystal-clear to astronomy fans in many parts of the U.S. this weekend. The Leonid shower happens each November, when Earth crosses the orbital path of the Tempel-Tuttle comet, [according to EarthSky](http://earthsky.org/?p=29831). This year, the celestial show is slated to begin Nov. 17, with peak viewing hours starting early the next morning, [AccuWeather reports](https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/leonid-meteor-shower-to-peak-november-17-18/70003259). According to AccuWeather, that’s good news for stargazers in the coastal Southeast, the northern Plains, the Four Corners area and California, where clear skies will make for great viewing conditions. Viewers in the Northeast, Great Lakes region and central Plains, however, may be blocked by storms and cloudy skies, AccuWeather meteorologist Kyle Elliot told the site. The Leonid is easiest to see in the Northern Hemisphere, AccuWeather adds, with the most meteors falling in East Asia. Most years, including this one, the Leonid shower produces roughly 15 meteors per hour at its peak. (For 2017, that’s between midnight and dawn on Nov. 18.) But once in a while, during particularly heavy years, it can produce as many as 50,000 meteors in a single hour, [Space.com reports](https://www.space.com/34500-leonid-meteor-shower-guide.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5024174/leonid-meteor-shower-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5024174/leonid-meteor-shower-2017/"},"headline":"The Leonid Meteor Shower Is This Weekend. Here Are the Best Places to See It","datePublished":"2017-11-14T20:26:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:14:46.508Z","description":"The annual event starts Nov. 17","url":"https://time.com/5024174/leonid-meteor-shower-2017/","keywords":["astronomy","onetime","Science"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2552780c16a05e1/6988e5cb8fd2ee3926359a28/leonid-meteor-shower.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2552780c16a05e1/6988e5cb8fd2ee3926359a28/leonid-meteor-shower.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Leonid meteor shower lights up the sky above C","caption":"The Leonid meteor shower lights up the sky above C","creditText":"STEPHEN SHAVER—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/astronomy/","name":"astronomy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5024174/leonid-meteor-shower-2017/","name":"The Leonid Meteor Shower Is This Weekend. Here Are the Best Places to See It"}}]}] ```