Updated 19 November 2001, 15.17

			Fact File
	Leonid meteor showers
		868AD: First Leonid shower reported
		1866: Ernst Tempel and Horace Tuttle discovered Tempel-Tuttle comet
		Travel at about 257,000km per hour
		Tempel-Tuttle comet goes around the sun every 33 years
		The meteors are the size of sand particles

But clouds and rain obscured the view for many other people around the globe.

Every November the Earth crosses the path of the Leonid meteors.

Space dust

The meteors are actually particles of dust left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle as it travels around the sun.

The American space agency, Nasa, reported between 800 and 1,000 meteors an hour.

On a normal day there would only be about 10 to 15 in that time.