From early this morning until early Wednesday, the skies will be filled with meteors during the Leonid Meteor Shower.

At the shower’s start this morning, sky was exceptionally clear, displaying hundreds of meteors viewable every hour.

The Leonids get their name from the constellation Leo, from where they appear to fall, said Andrew Telesca, an adjunct lecturer in the department of physics, applied physics and astronomy. The meteor trails are created when the Earth runs into a cloud of dust in its orbit, and particles in the atmosphere are heated, creating trails of light that can be seen from the ground.

“On any clear night you can see a few random meteors in the sky every hour. During the year, there are several showers that produce significantly more meteors,” Telesca said.

The best time to view the meteors was predicted to be between 2 and 4 a.m today, but they can still be seen tonight through the early hours of Wednesday morning.

According to Roy Williams, public relations coordinator for the Kopernik Observatory, located in Vestal, N.Y., the observatory will also be open for the Geminid Meteor shower, which will peak on Dec. 14.

“I’m planning on getting a group of friends together to go out to the field in Mountainview [College] to see the shower,” said Marissa Langett, a freshman with an undeclared major. “It should be an interesting event and I don’t want to miss it.”

Several communities are hosting events for the second night of the shower and encourage students to check it out.

According to Kasey Robb, a resident assistant in Mohawk (full disclosure: Kasey Robb is a photographer for Pipe Dream), an event tonight at 10:45 p.m. includes snacks and a trip to the Nature Preserve if the sky is clear enough to see the shower.

“This is probably going to be the best meteor shower of your college life — unless of course you decide to become a super-super-super senior,” joked the Mountaineer newsletter for Mountainview College.

Students looking for more information on the shower can visit the NASA Web site at nasa.gov.