Sir, - The article by Dick Ahlstrom on the Leonid meteor shower ("Starry act might fizzle out again", Science Today, November 16th) was unduly pessimistic: in 1998, Comet TempelTuttle gave the best display of fireballs in living memory. The meteoroids were proved by astronomers at Armagh Observatory to have been emitted from the comet in 1333.In 1999, the Armagh astronomer David Asher and colleagues predicted the time of the meteor storm to an accuracy of better than five minutes, hardly an "iffy" business. The result was hailed as: "a breakthrough in the general explanation of the phenomenon," by the President of the International Meteor Organization, Jurgen Rendtel.This year, the faint meteors will be washed out by the Moon, but the maximum of the burst is expected to occur at around 3.44 a.m. on Saturday, November 18th. Far better shows are forecast for some parts of the world in 2001 and 2002. Full details are available at www.arm.ac.uk/leonid/. - Yours, etc.,
Prof M.E.BAILEY, Director, Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh.