“It could be amazing, or it could be a dud,” says David Weinrich, director of Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Planetarium. “Part of the reason, at least in the Red River Valley, is that November is traditionally the cloudiest month of the year.”

The Leonid meteor shower gets its name because it appears to be coming from the direction of the sickle-shaped constellation Leo The Lion.  It’s potentially so impressive because it’s the closest meteor shower to Earth.

 And it’s the fastest, because the Earth and the debris cloud are moving in nearly opposite directions, sending the shooting stars at a speed of  nearly 160,000 miles per hour.

“Last year’s Leonid show was pretty decent,” Weinrich said. “I saw a couple hundred meteors an hour between 1 and 4 a.m. Then the clouds came in.”

This year, he said, experts are predicting one of the most spectacular meteor storms in recent times, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 meteors per hour.

“Typically a good meteor shower means 60 to 100 shooting stars an hour,” he said. “That’s why I don’t want to miss this one. I might not be around for the next good Leonid shower, which won’t be until around the year 2098 because orbits of Earth and Temple-Tuttle will be too far apart until then.”

The source of this celestial display is the comet Tempel-Tuttle.

Comets, Weinrich said, are basically huge, dirty snowballs, space debris made up of gases, ice and dust. More than 200 comets have been orbiting the Sun during the past two centuries.

The debris particles that breaks off from the comet are called meteoroids. They’re renamed meteors when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere and start burning up from the friction, leaving streaks in the sky often referred to as shooting stars. Most of the debris, he said, are no bigger than apple seeds.

As the comet approaches the sun, it begins to heat up and the ice boils off, taking with it the rock and dust. So when the Earth passes through the same path the comet did, the debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, causing them to burn up and give off flashes and streaks of light.

That’s another reason the Leonids are potentially so impressive, Weinrich said. Because Earth and the Leonids are moving in nearly opposite directions, the meteors zoom into the atmosphere at nearly 160,000 miles per hour.

Actually, Weinrich said, Tempel-Tuttle passed closest to the Sun in 1998, but the biggest meteor showers--or storms--typically occur two to four year later.”

In 1998, 1999 and 2000, it was too cloudy in the Red River Valley to see the Leonids, he said.

It’s been his nemesis.

The last big Leonid meteor event occurred on Nov. 17, 1966. ”I was 14 years old then and usually woke up at about 5:30 a.m. on my father’s dairy farm in southeastern Minnesota to do chores before school,” he said. “But that day, I stayed in bed because I was sick. My father described it as spectacular. The experts said it was the most intense meteor storm on record.”

Every 33.2  years in November, Weinrich said, the comet Tempel-Tuttle makes both its closest approach to the Sun and its closest approach to the Earth’s orbit, which creates all the fireworks.

Tempel-Tuttle was named after two 19th-century astronomers who discovered the comet in 1865 after a huge meteor shower, followed the next year by a meteor storm—about 5,000 meteors per hour, one of the most intense storms on record. There is evidence, however, that the comet has been creating showers and storms every 33 years for more than a millennium.

Weinrich said the best viewing in the Red River Valley will start at about 4:30 a.m., in the early morning of Tuesday, Nov. 19.

“Look at the constellation Leo, east of Orion,” Weinrich said. “It should begin rising in the northeast sky at about 10:50 p.m. Monday and move high in the southeast sky by dawn Tuesday. Predicting the times isn’t an exact science, especially because the gravitational pull of Jupiter (the largest planet) can knock it off schedule.”

Actually, there will be two peak showers that night—the first at about 10 p.m. Monday evening, Nov. 18  (from the 1767 trail of the comet) and the other at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19 (from the 1833 trail).

“Leo is below the horizon at 10 p.m. here, but the shower is predicted to last about 106 minutes. So just before 11 p.m. on Nov. 18, when Leo comes into our sky, we may see what’s called an Earth grazing, where meteors from Leonid will appear to shoot parallel to the horizon. That would be incredible to see.”

But the best view will be at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, when Leo is high in the sky and the moon is sinking in the west.

Every year, Weinrich said, the Earth experiences about a dozen major meteor showers--including the Perseids every August, the Geminids every December and the Leonids every November.

“I’ll be staying up all night at a friend’s house in the lake country,” Weinrich said. “With any luck, I’ll recapture that moment I missed 33 years ago.”

If you intend to watch the Leonids, Weinrich suggests getting away from competing street or house lights, and preferably out of the city and to the east.  Then look directly south, because that’s the direction the meteors will shoot from Leo.

Unfortunately, there will be a full Moon that night, which could dim the view of the smaller meteors.

“You might want to take an umbrella or something to block out the bright glow of the Moon,” he said. “And arrive 15 minutes early so your eyes adjust to the dark.  Lie back on a lawn chair or blanket. Meteor showers are best seen with the naked eye, so you don’t need a telescope Wear warm clothes and bring along something warm to drink. And cross your fingers that it’s not cloudy.”

Her book, published by 1st Books Library, is set in the inner city of Minneapolis. Preston was raised in Moorhead, but spent the majority of her adult life in the Twin Cities where she was the registrar at Metropolitan State University.

“Every Secret Thing,” her first novel, is the story of a former street gangster and a divorced rich suburban housewife who meet in the inner city. Two strangers from different worlds form a lasting relationship. But when the former gangster is drawn back into the streets to find his brother’s murderer, his new suburban girlfriend is pulled into the mystery and the reality of the hustler’s world.

Preston, 47, lives with her husband Patrick in Fargo. Between them, they have 11 children. The mystery novel is available at the MSUM Bookstore for $13.95

Arguing for the case will be Rebecca Moore, a Concordia College political science professor. Arguing the case against will be Philip M. Mouch, an MSUM philosophy professor. David Myers, also an MSUM philosophy professor, will moderate the discussion.

Other events scheduled during the week:
* A study abroad mini fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20 in the student union ground floor level will feature information about MSUM's study abroad programs and summer tours.

* "Living in a post-Soviet World: Myth and Reality, " featuring a panel of students from the former Soviet states who will talk about their perspectives on day-to-day life after devolution at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21 in the student union ballroom.

* Roger Prestwich, director of the International Business Program at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, will deliver a lecture on "Americans as World Citizens: A Contradiction in Terms?" at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22 in MSUM’s Center for Business 111.

Prestwich will discuss what foreigners think they know about the United States and what American’s think they know about them. He'll touch upon the media's role in providing information about global issues, the effect 9/11had throughout the world, and what role education plays in these issues.

Haukebo, who retired in 1989 and now lives in Pelican Rapids with his wife Doris, established the university’s Office of International Programs along with MSUM’s Student Teaching Abroad program and Regional Science Center. Before coming to MSUM in 1967 as director of student teaching, he taught at Concordia College where he developed its Language Villages program.

While colleges and universities in the United States host more than 500,000 international students and scholars annually, fewer than 150,000 American students study abroad, a third of them for less than a semester.

“For many students, studying abroad is one of their greatest life experiences,” Haukebo said. “I’d like to do my part to encourage more students to take that step.”

For more information about the endowment, contact the MSUM Alumni Foundation office at 236-2556.

It’s simple:
1-Go the Web registration and log in.
2-Then click on student services

Student services is an ever-expanding site where students can check their grades and update a variety of their personal information. What’s new about that page is that students can now update their local address there, along with their demographic information.

Under “Academic Records” on the student services page, students can now access and print-out their transcripts in three different ways: chronologically, by subject, or by general education (same as their advising transcript) where they can check everything from their liberal studies credits to their upper division credits.

“The best part about this,” Tandberg said,”is that students can access their transcript any time they want—days, nights or weekends. And they don’t have to wait in line or make an appointment..”