Stargazers view early meteor shower

Slideshow: Leonid meteor shower 2009 worldwide

Stargazers in many Asian countries have gathered to watch the Leonid meteor storm. Despite freezing temperatures, the watchers enjoyed the falling meteors for hours in the pre-dawn darkness.

Astronomers say Wednesday morning's meteor storm was the largest since the one in 2001.

In northwest China's Gansu Province, astronomers and fans braved cold weather and shook off their sleepiness to wait for the astronomical phenomenon.

Kou Wen, Senior engineer of Beijing Planetarium, said, "From 4:30 to 5:30 we saw five to six meteors per minute. I think there were 2 to 3 hundred in total in that single hour."

A meteor shower occurs when streams of a comet's debris interacts with a planet such as the earth.

The Leonid meteor shower in 2001 had seen up to 3-thousand meteors per hour. But there has been a drop in the number of meteors since 2003. And astronomers expect the next shower on that scale to come in some 16 years. That's why this year's shower has attracted so many stargazers.

Meteor watcher of Gansu province said, "We saw the most meteors around 4 o'clock. It was spectacular."

"This is a good opportunity for astronomy fans to learn about the universe. I enjoy it."

In South Korea, some 500 watchers trekked to a museum south of Seoul early in the morning. They enjoyed watching the falling meteors for two hours.

The celestial storm also attracted sky-watchers in Thailand. But they were a little disappointed as most of the country was under a cloudy sky, and the meteor shower was less spectacular than the one eight years ago.