What makes this year’s Perseid Meteor Shower a little more unique is that it is an “outburst”, according to NASA.
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As soon as night fell so did the meteors.
The Perseids are expected to peak Thursday night, and as long as there are clear skies, it should be especially dark thanks to the moon setting close to 1 a.m. At times multiple meteors would appear across the starry sky some so low that it lit up the ground around me.
The dark beaches of Anna Maria Island are the flawless place to view one of nature’s most spectacular free shows – the Perseid meteor showers. When bits of dust and debris from the comet’s tail brush against earth’s atmosphere, they ignite, creating the streaks of light seen at ground level – or shooting stars. The Perseids are named for the constellation Perseus. Timing for the meteor outburst will be between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. That is likely to produce a more spectacular sky show tonight and Friday, Williams said. That’s twice as many meteors as a normal meteor shower! During the shower, the meteors emanate from the part of the sky that contains that constellation. Lie on your back and look straight up.
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“Here’s something to think about: The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago”, said Bill Cooke with NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office in a news release. At its peak of 150-200 meteors per hour, observers will be able to see two or three meteors a minute. The space debris burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere about fifty miles up, which in astronomical terms is really close. The ideal time for stargazers to look up is Thursday night, just after your local midnight (early Friday morning), though the previous or following nights will likely work as well.
