Great Show predicted for Perseid meteor peak on August 12-13

The Perseid meteor shower, an annual celestial event beloved by millions of skywatchers around the world, is about to make its annual return to the night sky. And thanks to a new Moon, there'll be no bright moonlight to hinder the view.

Sky and Telescope magazine predicts that this year's Perseid shower will reach its peak on Sunday night, August 12th, and early morning on the 13th. You will also see some Perseids, though fewer in number, for several nights before and after that date.

"The moonless sky this year means the viewing will be excellent, and the shower's predicted peak is timed especially well for North America," notes Diana Hannikainen (pronounced huhn-ih-KY-nen), Sky and Telescope's Observing Editor. "Under a very dark sky, you might see up to one Perseid per minute late on Sunday night or after midnight on Monday morning."

When you see a meteor, track its path backward. If you eventually come to the constellation Perseus - which climbs the northeastern sky as the night progresses - then a Perseid is what you've just witnessed.

Although an occasional Perseid meteor might catch your attention shortly after evening twilight ends, the prime viewing hours are from about 11 p.m. or midnight (local time) until the first light of dawn. This is when the shower's radiant, its perspective point of origin in Perseus, is high up in your sky.

The higher the radiant, the more meteors you'll see. But when the shower's radiant is still low above the horizon, the few Perseids that do appear can be spectacularly long "Earthgrazers" skimming far across the sky along the top of the atmosphere.

To enjoy the Perseids, you need no equipment but your eyes. Find a dark spot with a wide-open view overhead. Bring a reclining lawn chair or a ground cloth so you can lie back and watch the sky in comfort. Bundle up in a light blanket or a sleeping bag, both for mosquito shielding and for warmth - clear nights can grow surprisingly chilly under the open stars (due to radiational cooling).

These "shooting stars" can appear anywhere and everywhere in the sky. So the best direction to watch is wherever your sky is darkest, usually straight up. Faint Perseids appear as tiny, quick streaks. Occasional brighter ones might sail across the heavens for several seconds and leave a brief train of glowing smoke.

"Relax, be patient, and let your eyes adapt to the darkness," suggests S and T Senior Editor J. Kelly Beatty. "The Perseids will put on a great show."

Any light pollution will cut down the numbers visible. But the brightest few meteors shine right through light pollution. In fact, a NASA analysis of all-sky images taken from 2008 to 2013 shows that the Perseids deliver more bright meteors (those that outshine any star) than any other annual meteor shower.

Occasionally you might spot an interloper. The weaker Delta Aquariid and Kappa Cygnid showers are also active during Perseid season, and there are always a few random, "sporadic" meteors. All of these track back to other parts of the sky.

How and Why
Meteors are caused by tiny, sand-grain- to pea-size bits of dusty debris streaking into the top of Earth's atmosphere roughly 80 miles up. Each Perseid particle zips in at 37 miles (60 km) per second, creating a quick, white-hot streak of superheated air. The nuggets in Grape Nuts cereal are a close match to the estimated size, color, and texture of typical meteor-shower particles.

These particular bits of interplanetary debris were shed long ago by Comet Swift-Tuttle and are distributed all along the comet's 133-year-long orbit around the Sun. Earth passes through this tenuous "river of rubble" every year in mid-August. The comet is so named because it was independently discovered by Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle in July 1862.

+ Information about the discovery of the Perseid meteor shower in the 1830s

+ Tips on how to photograph the Perseid meteor shower

Related Links
Sky and Telescope Magazine
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology

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