According to Nasa, the Perseid shooting stars show up every year in August “when Earth ventures through trails of debris left behind by an ancient comet”.
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Each year the earth’s orbit passes through that dust cloud, producing the annual light show known as the Perseid meteor shower. Astronomers estimate between 100 and 200 meteors per hour will be visible. That’s double the usual rate, though some dispute whether this year’s Perseids will be particularly special.
You can watch the meteor shower from the comfort of your computer beginning at 10 p.m. ET thanks to NASA’s live-stream, but prime-time viewing is from midnight to dawn. Meteor-watchers should be patient – the longer you let your eyes adjust to the darkness, the more meteors you’ll see. To view the shower just lie back and look up in the sky toward the northeast. Stargazers expect a similar outburst during next week’s Perseid meteor shower, which will be visible overnight on August 11 and 12.
The Perseid Meteor Shower will burst into life later tonight and into the early hours. And, of course, if you have the ability to get away from light pollution, you will have a much better view of the shower. The NASA UStream player that will show the Perseids is embedded below. “Comet Swift-Tuttle has a huge nucleus-about 26 km in diameter”, said Cooke. They’re called Perseids because they seem to originate from the constellation Perseus. A lot of people think you need a telescope to see this but you don’t. Increased activity may also be seen on August 12-13. Most burn up 50 miles above our planet. So they’re not exactly “shooting stars”, but the flashes appear in the sky like dazzling streaks of light.
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If you’re looking for the flawless place to see the Perseids, you’ll need to move away from cloudy or light-polluted skies.
