Thursday night into early Friday, the annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak with double the normal number of meteors.
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You might have to stay up late to see it, but local astronomer Nello Williams is recommending you watch the Perseid Meteor outburst tonight after midnight. It results when Earth plows through the dust and other debris shed over the eons by the 16-mile-wide (26 kilometers) Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. If that’s the case, you can catch a live broadcast of the Perseid meteor shower courtesy of NASA beginning at 10 p.m. From tonight, the Perseid meteor shower will be reaching its peak, giving you a chance to see a shooting star over the next few evenings.
Stormy weather in the Southeast and even parts of the Northeast will be dealing with more clouds than not, hindering a good view of the night sky. According to Cooke, “The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago”. Each swing through the inner solar system can leave trillions of small particles in its wake.
If you don’t see any meteors right away, don’t panic: it takes about half an hour for your eyes to fully adjust to the darkness.
Bluewater Astronomical Society President John Hlynialuk says the meteor shower has actually been taking place since July 17th and will continue until August 24th.
This year’s show will be the best yet, NASA says, because Jupiter’s gravity is shoving the comet’s debris towards Earth.
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“And they’ve travelled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere”. The meteors will appear to emanate from the constellations Perseus (hence the name) and Cassiopeia. Meteors will appear all over the sky, so it’s best to lie down and look up high – taking in as much sky as possible.
