Rain, clouds may obscure tonight's meteor shower

The Leonids, an annual meteor shower that occurs as the Earth passes through the debris of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, is expected to put on a decent show tonight and early Wednesday morning.

"It could be quite stunning flashes in the sky, but they are only predicting 12 an hour," said Scott Severson, a Sonoma State University astronomy professor.

Others predict as many as 20 to 30 meteors will streak across the sky every hour, still far fewer than the 2002 meteor storm, when there were thousands per hour.

Predicting the density of the debris field can be difficult, however, and no one knows for sure what it will be like when the show peaks tonight and Wednesday morning.

"Meteor showers are like comets, (which) are like cats. They have tails and they do damn well what they please," said Ed Megill, director of the Santa Rosa Junior College planetarium.

The other issue is the weather.

Skies are expected to be partly cloudy tonight with a slight chance of rain.

-- Bob Norberg