There's a good chance Colorado stargazers can catch a meteor shower this month.
Several different showers are active over the next few weeks. The Leonid Meteor shower peaks early Monday morning. These meteors are moving faster than normal shooting stars.
"They produce longer streaks as well as produce smoke trails behind them - so that's what makes this one sort of unique," said astronomy guide Mark Laurin - aka Astro Mark.
With the Leonid shower, up to 15 meteors may be visible an hour. But even if you strike out, Laurin said getting outside to look at the night sky has tremendous benefits.
"It just awakens a deeper sense of who we are, the humanity that we share, and it also expands us to think about the world in different ways," he said.
Astro Mark recommends getting to a dark location and leaving your cell phone behind - the light from your phone can affect your night vision.
"It takes you about 20 minutes to get your night vision - it's a chemical process where you're activating the rods in your eyes," Laurin explained. "You turn on your cell phone, you look at a white light, you lose it, then you've got to start that whole cycle over again."
If you can't make a date for Leonids, the Alpha Monocerotids shower peaks on Nov. 21 and the Orionid shower peaks on Nov. 28.
