Sure-As-Shootin' Leonids

Two bright "shooting stars" (horizontal lines at lower left) from the annual Leonids meteor shower streak across the northeast sky in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the early morning of November 17, 1998. The meteors are emanating from the "radiant," or origin, located in the constellation Leo at far right. This 20-minute time exposure, begun around 1:30 AM, looks toward Council Street NE. The meteor shower, which extends from November 13-21 each year, is the result of debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle entering the Earth's upper atmosphere. Most of the debris is merely dust-sized.