Thirty-three Novembers ago, Joe Rao stood in his Bronx back yard, cursing the heavens.
Clouds covered the midnight sky like a fresh coat of plaster, smearing the 10-year old's view of the annual Leonid meteor shower.Rao's parents and neighbors had long since trudged to bed. But the boy persisted, bundled up like he was going tobogganing, his ear glued to an AM transistor radio.
Chicken Littles filled the late-night airwaves with descriptions of shooting stars drenching the cosmos like a celestial typhoon and, perhaps, ending the world.
It was the now-famous 1966 Leonids meteor storm.
And Joe Rao was missing it.
"It was the first time I stayed up all night," recalled Rao, who lectures at New York City's Hayden Planetarium. "I was tearing my hair out."
This may be the year that Rao finds meteor redemption.
The Leonids occur every year on or about Nov. 18. Earth glides through the diaphanous tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle and stargazers are tempted with a drizzle of 10 or 20 meteors fizzing across the horizon every hour.
But every 33 years, astronomers calculate, a rare and dazzling Leonids storm can occur after the comet swoops near the sun, shrugging off layers of dusty, icy particles the size of Rice Krispies. Earth plows straight through the comet's refreshed wake.
Astronomers believe the 1999 edition of the Leonids probably won't equal 1966, which peaked at 144,000 meteors per hour. But it is likely to be a meteor gullywasher at 2,000 to 6,000 meteors per hour. Maybe more.
A meteor poses no real danger. A meteor actually refers to the bright streak of light that is generated by friction as the comet particle rips through earth's thick atmosphere at 40 miles per second.
The particle, known as a meteoroid, sheds its own outer layers of molecules with a Technicolor brilliance before its core is vaporized. (A few meteors also are caused by fragments shed by passing asteroids, but they don't trigger annual showers.)
Still, operators of 600 satellites are taking no chances. They are diverting their "birds"' sensitive optics and antennae so the incoming particles won't disrupt everything from cell phone and cable TV signals to military observations. NASA has postponed its next space shuttle mission until after Nov. 19.
"The likelihood of getting hit goes up, and protecting satellites becomes very important," said William Ailor of the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Ca. "But losing a number of satellites in the storm is out of the question."
On the ground, the Leonids are a reason to party. Skywatchers defy frosty temperatures and drag out lawn chairs for the spectacle. Planetariums are hosting Leonids cruises and camp-outs.
And, this year's observations could turn out to be more precious still.
Irregularities in Earth's orbit and Jupiter's powerful gravitational tug are likely to jostle Tempel-Tuttle slightly off course for an orbit or two, resulting in diminished Leonids encounters for up to 100 years.
That doesn't mean there won't be other meteor showers in the 21st century. The Perseids occur every Aug. 12, and the Geminids in mid-December.
But none can match the Leonids in a storm year.
The best Leonids viewing this year, weather permitting, probably will be in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, peaking just before 2 a.m. London time (7 p.m. Mountain).
Views in the United States are likely to be marginal by comparison, but still worth a look. The night skies still should appear busy, with a tenfold increase of "shooting stars" compared to a typical Leonids shower.