Leonids meteor shower to light up the skies Special

A free cosmic show is on hand during the early hours as the annual Leonids meteor shower starts at midnight, with the best sights coming around 4 a.m. EST. North America will have a small showing but those in Asia will get the full viewing.

To get a good visual on Leonids look towards the Big Dipper. For those who live in cities like Toronto where light pollution can take away from the 20 to 30 meteors zooming across the horizon understand it may be hard to catch all of the action. If you want to get the full show you'll have to travel to Asia where the show will feature up to 300 meteors, Lillian Lanca from the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department from the University of Toronto told me. "It's not going to be as easy to be seen but there is a new moon which will help. In other years it has been more specular in North America. This year the show will be slack but in Asia there will be over 300 meteors." Lanca told me that more information about the Leonids can be found at Space Weather.com.