The shower will peak with the highest number of meteors in the late evening hours of August 11th and early morning hours of August 12th – coinciding with the last quarter moon phase, as a bright half moon.
Once evening falls, you expect to see a meteor, like a shooting star, which streaks across the sky every few minutes. Hopefully clear skies will ensure the best viewing of these bright meteors and fireballs.
What are the Perseids?
These striking meteors are linked to the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. This means that the Earth passes through the comet’s pun field every August.
The ice and dust, accumulating over a thousand years, burns up in our atmosphere to make the meteor shower. The Perseids judges light up more bright meteors than any other annual meteor shower.
The meteors can be traced back to the Perseus constellation, from which they get their name, which will climb into the northeastern sky when the evening is over. From our perspective, the meteors all seem to come from a single point called the “ray”, but that is because they move parallel to each other.
When the beam is highest in the sky, we will see most meteors. But Earthgrazer meteors, which shake the Earth’s atmosphere and show long, bright tails, are seen earlier in the evening when the radiant low is above the horizon.
The meteors themselves travel at 132,000 miles per hour, providing vivid streaks of light. These small stones can reach between 3000 and 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit during this shower.
The comet itself will come extremely close to Earth in 2126 in a “near-miss”. (That’s about 14.2 million miles away, so there’s no danger.)
How to see
NASA scientists advised that although the shower can be seen in your area any time after 9pm, the best time to spot a flood of meteors will be in the darkest part of the night, in the early hours before breakfast, between 2 o’clock in the morning and in the morning.
The bright moon will rise at midnight, changing the pitch box display window, according to NASA. But you can still expect to see a meteor shower across the sky almost every two minutes.
Patience is key. It can take up to 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness for optimal viewing. The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, but they look brighter against the darkest sky, which is straight up.
Some meteors have only sharp, fast strokes. Others are brighter and may appear to fly over our air for several seconds, leaving a glowing trail of smoke.
The best way to view the meteor shower is by sitting in a reclining lawn chair or lying on your back and looking up at the sky with a wide view. No special equipment is required, but if you want the best view, it helps to be as far away from artificial light as possible.
If you live in an urban area, you may want to take a drive to avoid city lighting, which can lower the meteor shower. NASA scientists also said that camping in the country could triple the amount of visible meteors.
And don’t forget to grab your camera before you go out. Meteor showers are a great opportunity for fide-time lapse and long-exposure photography, allowing you to take photos of the night sky from Van Gogh-like paintings of this starry spectacle.
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