Leonid meteor shower set to light up UK's night sky: All you need to know

Leonid Meteor Shower: The best time to spot the Leonids shower will be from midnight to dawn.

The Leonid meteor shower is set to light up UK's night sky in the early hours of Friday. Britons living in the south and west of the UK will have the best chance of catching a glimpse of the shooting stars while cloudy and rainy conditions across northern areas mean a sighting of the annual event is unlikely. The best time to spot the Leonids shower will be from midnight to dawn.

Leonid Meteor Shower: The best time to spot the Leonids will be from midnight to dawn. (AFP)

Here's all you need to know about the Leonid meteor shower:

1. The Leonids are normally fast and bright. In the meteor shower, flashes of light are created when fragments of Comet Tempel-Tuttle enter the Earth's atmosphere at over 45 miles (72km) per second.
2. They then create friction in the air, causing them to burn up and leave a bright momentary streak across the sky.
3. Each year the Earth passes through the debris left behind by Tempel-Tuttle and as a result we get the Leonids.
4. The Leonid meteor shower got its name because they appear to stream from the head of the constellation Leo, the Latin word for lion.
5. Leonid meteor shower'll also be visible across all parts of the UK sky.
6. The Moon will only be 35% illuminated overnight which implies that it won't be too bright making it easier to spot any shooting stars.
7. The display will be visible to the naked eye.
8. In 1833, the Leonid meteor storm reported a peak of 100,000 shooting stars per hour.