There might be some long gaps and then you’ll see two or three at once. When the dust and ice hits the Earth’s atmosphere at around 37 miles per second, they disintegrate high up in the atmosphere after making a brilliant flash of light.
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Every year in the month of August the skies are graced with what is known as the Perseid Meteor Shower.
“Forecasters are predicting a Perseid outburst this year”, said Bill Cook of NASA’s Meteroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Ala. NASA is predicting the Perseid “outburst” this year will double the normal rates on August 11 and 12.
Stargazers in Croatia, particularly in spots outside the main centres, will get the chance to catch one of the brightest and most visible meteor showers this week… They will broadcast live from their observatories in the Canary Islands, Slooh HQ in Washington, Connecticut, and their live feed partners in the United Kingdom, and Thunder Bay, Canada. “And they’ve traveled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere”. People closer to the coast will likely have better viewing conditions.
The best time to watch the show is after the moon has set at around 12AM as the moon’s light can interfere with the view.
Again, the best time to see the peak will be starting around 1 a.m. Thursday into Friday morning.
Mostly clear skies Wednesday night into Thursday morning will offer the best opportunity to see the Perseids for much of Western New York. The meteors are called Perseids because they seem to fly out the constellation Perseus.
Let your eyes adjust to the dark for 45 minutes.
Here’s everything you need to know about viewing the meteor shower.
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For stargazers experiencing cloudy or light-polluted skies (like us), a live broadcast of the Perseid meteor shower will be available via Ustream overnight on August 11-12 and August 13-14, beginning at 9 p.m. CT.
