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Perseid Meteor Shower: Cloudy skies could ruin shooting star show in Luxembourg
This year, the shower will reach its peak on August 11-12.
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This year the meteor shower will be in “outburst”, which means they’ll appear at double the usual rates. You will want to go to your designated star-watching location at or after 11 p.m. on a night before the night you expect to watch the meteor shower so you can practice locating Perseus.
“Forecasters are predicting a Perseid outburst this year with double normal rates on the night of August 11-12”, said Cooke.
There are, however, streams of cometary debris which have not yet had a chance to disperse and are thus characterized by higher particle densities over much smaller volumes of space.
The Perseid meteor shower will be visible from Earth mostly in North America and Europe.
Interestingly, this year’s meteors are debri from a very amusing sounding comet ‘Swift Turtle’.
“It’s best to watch them from the countryside but even in town, these meteors are bright enough for a few to be visible”. Furthermore, a couple of researchers have identified dust streams from individual returns of Swift-Tuttle in the past that Earth may intercept this time around. While most meteors will appear in the general vicinity of Perseus, they can actually appear anywhere in the sky; if their paths are traced backwards, they will appear to have come from the direction of Perseus.
While the skies are lit up several time a year by other meteor showers, the Perseids are widely sought after by astronomers and stargazers.
Cooke thinks the Perseids are rich in fireballs because of the size of the parent comet.
The Orionids arrive every year and are visible this year from October 2 to November 7 when the Earth passes through a stream of debris left behind by a comet, in this case, the famous Comet Halley.
In 2016, our planet earth may be in for a closer interaction with the Perseids than it has had in previous times.
Astronomer Brian Marsden discovered during the 1990s that the comet and Earth might experience a cosmic near miss of roughly a million miles in 3044.
“Under ideal conditions, rates could soar to 200 meteors per hour”, said Bill Cooke, of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Ala.
For the first time since 2009, stargazers will see up to 200 “shooting stars” an hour instead of the usual 100.
He noted that under flawless conditions, we will be treated to up to a whopping 200 meteors every hour, so be ready to get your star gazing on. This sets up ideal conditions for viewing one of the most anticipated meteor showers of the year: the Perseid. Lie on your back and look straight up.
The Perseids are here: The dazzling meteor shower’s peak of activity is August 12, but you can already see its streaks of light peppering the sky.
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The same is true as the Earth whirls through space and plows into this cloud of dusty debris: Our best view of the shower comes when we’re peering out of Earth’s front window, and that comes just before dawn.