For two consecutive nights, on November 17 and 18, between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., the celestial fireworks can be witnessed. Residents of East and South Asia will have the best view.

And to catch the heavenly showers, first gaze into the night sky and spot the constellation Saptarishi or Ursa Major. The seven star question mark-shaped constellation shouldn't be difficult to locate, since it is one of the most visible ones in the sky, despite the heavy smog over Delhi.

According to the step-by-step guide supplied by the Nehru Planetarium, one must then isolate the first two stars of this constellation and follow them to the pole star, which indicates North. Work out the four directions and stand facing East. Then check your chart, look for the position of the leonid on it and then look up at the sky again. If you've got everything right, you should be able to see the lights. An annual phenomenon, this time the meteor storm is expected to produce a large number of shooting stars. Every year, between November 13 and 20, the Earth passes close to a stream of meteor particles left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once in 33 years.

These meteor particles enter the Earth's atmosphere, burn and produce several shooting stars. Interestingly, all the stars appear to originate from the same point in the sky, forming a shower with its genesis in the constellation Leo.

After a 33-year gap, this year Tempel-Tuttle has added a fresh supply of rubble to the meteor particle stream. And more particles mean more fireworks.The larger number of particles, however, could cause damage to orbiting satellites. The Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics has not ruled out the possibility of the leonid meteor showers damaging satellites and causing communication failure.