One of the highlights of the astronomical calendar, and something I look forward to every year, is the Perseid meteor shower. This impressive display, which is visible in the northern and parts of the southern hemisphere, will peak on the evening of 12 August, running into the early hours of 13 August. What makes it special is that, at least where I am in the northern hemisphere, it tends to happen on a warm evening – unlike the equally spectacular Geminids in December.
The number of meteors you can expect to see during the Perseids varies depending on light pollution, cloud cover and moonlight – but luckily this year, the moon will be in its first quarter on the evening of 12 August. It will set around midnight, giving viewers plenty of moon-free meteor spotting time.
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Regardless of where you are in the world, after midnight local time is the best time to look for the meteor shower. Keep an eye on the cloud cover forecasts on the evenings before and after the peak and pick a night that looks best for you to watch it, but you have a better chance of seeing meteors before the peak than after.
Meteors, or shooting stars, are bright flashes of light that quickly cross the night sky. They are caused by pieces of dust and debris entering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up. Meteor showers happen when Earth’s orbit around the sun takes us through a cloud of dust and debris left behind by a comet or asteroid. The Perseids are caused by remnants of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Meteor showers are named after the constellation the meteors appear to come from in the sky. In this case, it is the constellation Perseus, one of the biggest in the night sky.
You don’t have to be able to find Perseus to enjoy the meteor shower, since the shooting stars will cross the sky in all directions. But if you do want to find it, you can do so using the constellations Cassiopeia and Taurus.
Find the bright W or M shape of Cassiopeia, which should be in the north, then follow the imaginary arrow created by the shallower of the two Vs. You should eventually see a small collection of stars that looks like a miniature version of the Plough or the Big Dipper. This is the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. Perseus sits between the two.
The only thing you have to do now is to make yourself really comfortable and warm. Go somewhere away from light pollution if you can, and, if not, try to turn off any immediate sources of light near you. Let your eyes adjust for at least 15 minutes, lie back and wait for the meteors to appear.
During the peak, you can expect up to 100 meteors in an hour, particularly if the moon has set and you have a clear sky. No matter how often you have seen the shower, it never fails to delight.
Abigail Beall is a features editor at ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ and author of The Art of Urban Astronomy. Follow her @abbybeall
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