What time is the 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower? Peak time for the 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower starts Tuesday.

The peak period to see the shower is 4 a.m. EST 1 a.m. PST Tuesday morning. Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office says you will have about 1 hour to observe in the U.S.

“We’re predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia

“We can predict when Earth will cross a debris stream with pretty good accuracy. The intensity of the display is less certain, though, because we don’t know how much debris is in each stream.”

“A remarkable feature of this year’s shower is that Leonids will appear to be shooting almost directly out of the planet Mars.”

“Even if rates are only half …  it would still be one of the best showers of the year.”