But skies across Grampian are set to be full of cloud cover, with the best chance of catching a glimpse of the heaviest meteor shower of 2016 between Friday evening and Saturday morning. “Both the meteor shower and the weather are things we can’t control, and you never know what you’re going to get”, Treece said. Here is a guide to view the shooting star event.
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According to David Moore, the chairman of Astronomy Ireland: “This year is expected to be two to three times stronger than normal, because we’re passing through a particularly dense swarm of dust particles”, Mr Moore told RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland.
An outburst is a meteor shower with more meteors than usual.
It may take a while to see any shooting stars as they tend to appear in clusters, followed by a lull, so patience is key.
In a normal year, those watching can see 60 to 100 meteors per hour. It occurs every August when the Earth passes through debris left by an ancient comet, the Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 133 years.
Observers will want to look toward the northern sky, because the meteor shower will radiate out of the constellation Perseus.
Star gazers should get away from the glare of city lights and get their eyes adapted to the night sky, said Clayton Lindsey, president of the Minnesota Astronomical Society.
“You don’t need anything, just a blanket and some bug spray”, Bonadurer said.
Just maybe don’t plan on it for Thursday night, according to meteorologist Paul Douglas. “If you go out looking for meteors and your mouth is open, you will drown”. The shower generally produces 80 meteors per hour. NASA will be live overnight on Thursday and Friday, starting at 10 p.m. ET.
“Forecasters are predicting a Perseid outburst this year with double normal rates on the night of August 11-12”, Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Alabama said in a statement.
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“Even though it’s one night past peak it still should be pretty good”.
