Meteor : What You Need to Know About This Weekend’s Shower

This is a must-see! Shooting Star Show! The annual Perseid meteor shower is set to take place Sunday night and into the pre-dawn hours of Monday. You can enjoy the spectacle
all over the world.

What kind of meteor is this?

The Perseids are one of the most anticipated events of the year for those who love the sky and the stars. This shower brings a large number of shooting stars. Depending on the weather conditions, it is possible to see up to 100 shooting stars per hour from dark locations.

“Not only is the shower rich in bright meteors and fireballs — No. 1 in fact — it also peaks in mid-August when the weather is still warm and comfortable,” Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said in a NASA. 

According to experts, the weather will be perfect for this show. This is because the moon will set at around 11:30 p.m. local time, so the parade of stars will not be overshadowed by the bright moonlight.

Where and when can you see

To best see this natural phenomenon, choose the darkest places possible. Drive away from city lights and other forms of light.

In the Northern Hemisphere, stargazers should set off between midnight and dawn. To best see the meteor shower, NASA recommends giving your eyes about 45 minutes to adjust to the darkness. Also, avoid looking at cell phones or other bright screens. Then you will not miss this parade of shooting stars.

The shower occurs annually from about mid-July to late August.
It occurs when the Earth passes through a cloud of dust and debris left over from a comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862. The streaks of light appear when the fragments hit the atmosphere and evaporate, leaving behind bright trails as they disintegrate.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/perseid-meteor-shower-peak-shooting-stars-rcna166019