Comets & Meteor Showers?
815538
I actually saw a huge meteor 2 nights ago crossing East to West.  This year's show was not predicted to be much, I was very surprised to see this large flaming fireball.  A meteor is a piece of rock debris which in huge amounts constitute the tail of a comet.
949144
Tonight and tomorrow night. Look after midnight though since the meteors will be arriving from space on the dawn side of the Earth. Before midnight you are on the "back" side of Earth and won't see the meteors. Just before the start of morning twilight is the best time to look. Other than that, they should be visible from any place on Earth.
876749
This is a semantics question.  A meteor is an chunk of something that has entered our atmosphere.  A meteorite is anything that survives to reach the surface of our planet in a solid state (as opposed to evaporating away completely on the way down). A shooting star is another word for a meteor.  Most meteors (by number count) are comet fragments, though occasionally a chunk of an asteroid enters the atmosphere.  \n\nThe leftover cometary debris is generally going to be silicates (sand) with maybe a little bit of ices (hydrogen+carbon+oxygen) left over, but that stuff tends to evaporate this close to the sun. \n\nSome asteroids are mostly silicates, some are rich in carbon compounds and some are largely nickel-iron, so meteors can be of all different types.
267288
The Lyrid shower is due on April 22.  The best viewing is between about 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. local time by looking generally to the North.  The Lyrids usually generate a moderate shower (about 5 to 20 per hour) but on rate occasions have generated as many as 90 per hour.\n\nThe best chance each year to see a meteor shower occurs around June 8 when the Arietids happen.  The best time to see the Arietids are just before dawn.  Look east about 45 minutes before sunrise.\n\nIn all cases, it is best to be in an area away from city lights.
861877
There are lots of spectacular still images of meteor showers (just do a google Image search "meteor shower").  \n\nShooting stars (meteors) are, of course, very hard to capture on video because you have to be pointing the camera in the right direction, and because video cameras are not designed to capture such small amounts of light.\n\nBut here's a video that showed on Australian news:\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3671895688125716111&q=shooting+star&hl=en\n\nAnd here's a fantastic *daylight* meteor in the Arizona desert.\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2680041612603684620&q=shooting+star&hl=en\n\nAnd here's one over Stonehenge (just a glimpse of the shooting star ... but hey, it's Stonehenge):\nhttp://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=shooting%20star&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv
38908
If you suspect it's  meteor, try these:\n\n     Center for Meteorite Studies\n     Arizona State University\n     Temple, AZ 85281\n\n\n     Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences\n     University of California\n     Los Angeles, CA 90024\n\n\n     Institute of Meteoritics\n     Department of Geology\n     University of New Mexico\n     Albuquerque, NM 87131\n\n\n     Lunar and Planetary Laboratory\n     Space Sciences Building\n     University of Arizona\n     Tucson, AZ 85721
947106
WASHINGTON -- While astronomers predict only a minimal blast of dust debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle for the Leonid meteor shower this week, some spacecraft controllers are on standby alert.\n\nFor the past two years, measures have been taken to protect Earth-circling satellites from the Leonids. High-velocity particles can wreak havoc with spacecraft, damaging solar panels, as well as delicate sensors. \n\nHits of speeding comet debris can also spark electrical effects in a satellite, possibly causing control thrusters to accidentally fire.\n\n[uplink]\n\nThe potential severity of the Leonid shower in 1998 and 1999 spurred a number of precautionary action items for satellite ground controllers. \n\nSelected satellites and components were powered down. "A team" personnel took over consoles during the showers. And a number of spacecraft solar panels were adjusted to minimize exposure to incoming storm debris
358080
There was an Oroinoid (I think) meteor shower a week ago.  I don't know if it is anual, if it is it seems that this was supposed to be an especially good show.\n\nThere are two other easily seen meteor showers that are annual (so they lie in the Earth's orbital path).  I believe Perseids are in August and Leonoids are in November.\n\n\nI found a table in my astronomy book\nHere I'll list the annual shower and when it reaches it's maximum (so you can see it in the few days before and after but this is when you should see the most activity).\n\n\nQuadrantids      Jan 3-4\nLyrids           Apr 22\n*nu* Aquarids    May 5\nPerseids         Aug 12\n*kappa* Cygnids  Aug 20\nOrionids         Oct 21\nTaurids          Nov 1\nLeonids          Nov 17\nGeminids         Dec 13-14\nUrsids           Dec 22
868776
We'll be watching at my school if it's not cloudy (the weather doesn't look good for the northeast US).  We don't have anything fancy, just an 8" Schmidt-Cass with a solar filter.  If we do get clouded/rained out, then we'll be watching a webcast, projected on the planetarium dome.
1139915
Meteor strikes happen all the time. If you're talking about the cataclysmic ones that cause mass extinctions, the probability is very low as these events happen millions of years apart.
460102
Depends on the size of the comet, many just disintegrate on the atmosphere. A really big one could create:\nShift in the orbit, heat from the explosion, smoke and dust from the explosion covering the Sun. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from shift in magnetic field due to orbit shift. Basically extinction of many forms of life, possibly even human.
751892
The Leonid meteor shower is predicted to peak at around 4:45-5UT on the 19th with a rate of about 100 to 150 meteors per hour.  This translates to about 10:45 to 11pm on the 18th in Kansas I think.  Unfortunately, the Leonid radiant (the point from which the Leonids appear to originate) is the constellation Leo -- which, in Kansas, does not rise until AFTER the peak.\n\nBut you will still be able to see some meteors after the radiant rises -- you just won't be able to witness the predicted maximum.  So if you have clear skies, go for it!
846875
During most of the shower activity you'll be lucky to see one Leonid meteor every ten minutes, which can be an eternity standing out in the cold with your neck craned up. However, there is a good chance that Earth will pass through a particularly dense ribbon of comet dust for a few minutes at  4:45 UT on Sunday morning Nov 19. That's 11:45pm Saturday night in New York. Unfortunately it's too early for us on the west coast, because at 8:45 pm our time we are "looking off the back of the boat" as Earth sails through the rocks.  All the incoming meteors tend to hit above people facing the direction of Earth's orbit around the sun, which is the direction we start to face only after local midnite. A predicted rate for favorable locations (mostly western Europe or the Altantic Ocean) at 04:45 UT is 150 meteors per hour. Such figures presume a horizon to horizon view of clear sky and no light pollution. If I haven't discouraged you too much, and the Saturday night sky is clear for both of you, and you can stay awake after midnite, then by all means put on something really really warm and go outside and enjoy the stars, and the occasional Leonid meteor.  You'll get no interference from the moon this weekend.
35245
There are an unlimited amount of craters on the Moon. In fact, the Moon continues to be hit everyday. This is especially true when we experience a meteor shower down here on Earth. A meteor shower occurs when the Earth intercepts an orbit of a comet that has debris in it. Since the Moon also intercepts this debris, those cometary particles cause impact creaters on the Moon because it has no atmosphere to stop the particles that look like shooting stars in our sky. When the Apollo crews returned with lunar samples and they were studied under a microscope, there were abundant microscopic craters in those samples. The largest craters can be several hundreds of miles wide. In fact the "Man on the Moon's" eyes are both ancient (4+ billion year ago) craters that filled up with lava.
1185571
a meteor is going to pass very close to the earth on that day...check out\nhttp://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=341846
793887
Anyplace not cloudy and that does not have too many bright lights will do. Just look anywhere in the sky. The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. Look after midnight though, because the radiant won't rise until then. The later at night you look, the better. 4:00 AM would be the best time to look.\n\nThe predictions are not that good this year. A few years ago I saw 50 bright ones per hour. This year they are predicting 10 or 15 per hour, and maybe not bright ones either. Also, the peak time is before the radiant rises in the US, so Europe will see the best show. If the predictions are correct.
828764
Leonids mid-November \nGeminids mid-December \nUrsids late December