The annual Leonid meteor shower is a result of the tiny bits of debris and sand particles blown off from comet Temple -Tuttle. This amazing meteor shower forms a spectacular event every year in November. Let us explore some historical and astronomical facts behind the Leonid meteor shower events.

The ancient Egyptians called meteorites the "stone of heaven." The oldest Sumerian word for iron meant "sky" and "fire." The Hittites, one of the first to use weapons from smelted terrestrial iron, called the metal "fire from heaven." The Assyrians too, extracted iron from ore and called it "fragment from heaven." In Siberian legends, the sky was a dome of sewn hides through which the gods would occasionally peer, exposing a flash of the radiance beyond.Several Native American tribes thought meteors were fragments of lunar material and called them "children of the moon."
In one Native American legend, a shooting star symbolizes a young girl, far from her native land, trying to get home. In another, it's a coyote who had climbed up to dance among the stars.

If you live near a brightly lit city, drive away from the glow of city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate.

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