A viewing party for the meteor shower will be in Big Meadows from 11:00 p.m.- 5:00 a.m. Wednesday night through early Thursday morning.
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HUNDREDS of shooting stars will be visible from across the UK tonight as the annual Perseids meteor shower peaks, with the best views expected in the Midlands and the north.
Gemma Lavender, features editor of All About Space magazine, said: “The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak on 12th August, with anywhere between 80 to 100 meteors per hour expected”. Cooke said if the weather is good, expect one shooting star a minute, maybe more.
“Advice from experienced meteor observers is to wrap up well and set up a reclining chair to allow you to look up at the sky in comfort”, it said. The best time for viewing will be after midnight.
The Perseid meteor shower as seen in 2009.
Avoid light pollution: Any dark, moonless sky away from major manmade light will offer an equal chance of seeing the meteors, which will blaze across various parts of the sky. At first, most of the shooting stars were near the horizon but soon they could be seen all over the eastern sky.
“Meteors from Comet Swift-Tuttle are called Perseids because they seem to fly out of the constellation Perseus”.
It can be seen each year from the end of July through most of August, but this week is when skygazers will be able to see the most meteors each hour.
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A meteor shower usually occurs when the Earth enters a zone that contains the remains of comets. You don’t need any special equipment. The Perseids appear to radiate from a point between the constellations Perseus and Cassiopeia, which will be rising in the northeast throughout the night. The brightest of the meteors, named fireballs and Perseids have been known to produce a lot of fireballs.
