Leonid meteor shower peaked with a maximum rate of ~18 meteors per hour

According to the International Meteor Organization, this year’s Leonid meteor shower peaked on Nov. 18th with a maximum rate of ~18 meteors per hour. That’s not many (especially compared to the Leonid storms of a decade ago), but sometimes just one Leonid can be enough. In Chelmsford, UK, astronomer Nick James caught this fireball lighting up the sky almost as brightly as the Moon:

The shower is subsiding as Earth exits the debris stream of parent Comet Tempel-Tuttle. (SpaceWeather)

Leonids 2011: visual data quicklook