Encouraged by optimistic astronomical forecasts that suggested the annual Leonid meteor shower might well be more dramatic than usual (TIME, Nov. 18), a team of University of Arizona students ascended nearby Kitt Peak to observe the spectacle, What they saw exceeded their wildest expectations.
As the first meteors streaked across the sky. after midnight on Nov. 17, the students began recording the time, brightness and trajectory of each. Though the rate of fall was disappointingly lowno more than two a minute the students stayed at their post. Then, about 5 a.m., stars fell on Arizona. "It was like a snowfall of...