Professor Mark Bailey, director of Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, called the Perseids the “best and most reliable meteor showers of the year”.
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The shower lasts all night and should be most easily visible when the sky is dark, between the hours of 10:30pm and 4:30am.
Made of tiny space debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, the Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus.
If you’re unable to catch tonight’s show, the shower is expected to continue until August 24 – but tonight’s display will likely be the most spectacular.
To watch the meteor shower, all you need is your eyes.
Those in the Midlands and the North will have the best view of the meteors, with visibility in southern England and Scotland predicted to be low due to cloudy conditions. This year, it will peak Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
The name derives in part from the word Perseides, a term found in Greek mythology referring to the sons of Perseus.
This year the peak of the Perseid meteor shower is occurring during a new moon. But that’s still worth it because the Perseids are among the brightest meteor showers of the year. Earth and the comet cross paths each August, and the particles burn up in an atmospheric light show.
Each of those meteors that flames through our night skies is a space rock burning up as it skids across Earth’s atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour.
Experts suggest the best views are to be had by looking northeast and finding a viewing spot away from city or street lights.
“It’s probably already started there’s been a few meteors people have seen but we are approaching the peak activity”, Stan Shaduk, professor of astronomy at the University of Saskatchewan, said. “We could be lucky and being able to see the ISS is an added bonus”.
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They range in size from a grain of sand to a pea and are seen as a streak of light or “shooting star” as they hit earth’s atmosphere at around 37mph.
