Special equipment will not be needed for seeing meteors. They can be seen with the unaided eye quite clearly.

The lights from the ships may interfere with the sky condition nearer to the horizon only. I believe that this will not affect the meteors much.

I recommend that you can try to catch the event at the Japanese Gardens, as the event also falls on the peak of the meteor shower. Generally, dark skies with no obstructions (like HDB buildings) are very suitable for meteor gazing.

We cannot tell when the first meteor will be seen. In fact, scientists cannot predict when the individual meteors will appear. They are quite random, and will occur over a few hours, even days. However, do note that meteors are more likely to appear after midnight due to the Earth’s rotation.

Enjoy the meteor shower!
Derek

Will there be any recommended spots to view the meteor shower?

just asking. do we need to have special equipment, like binoculars, to be able to see the shower clearly? &from east coast.wil the lights from the ships etc interfere w the interfere with the viewing?

The two events are the Leonids Meteor Shower Gazing and Camp Leonids.

Leonids Meteor Shower Gazing – http://astronomy.sg/archives/563
Camp Leonids – http://astronomy.sg/archives/561

Please kindly refer to our Calendar page for an overview of the events.

Thank you!

Yes, that’s correct. The peak is predicted to be on the morning of 18 November 2009.

Do note that the Leonids meteor shower occurs over a few days, not just on a particular day. While this meteor shower reaches its peak on 18 Nov, it is still possible to see meteors, just that there is a lower probability, a few days before and after 18 Nov.

It would be best to watch for meteors between midnight to sunrise, although that is no guarantee of being able to see meteors, due to Singapore’s skies being heavily light-polluted. If you would like to meet others who are also fascinated by celestial events such as meteor showers, I would encourage you to attend the two Leonids events as advertised on our website.

I hope this helps, and good luck with it!

Being clueless to how astronomy works, I am not sure if I had interpretered the article correctly
Hope you guys will be able to clarify.

Does this mean that the meteor shower would peak at 5am on 18 Nov 09 Singapore time?

Thank you for the clarification.