So grab a seat under the open sky and don’t forget to bring your wishes – tonight, the shooting stars will be hard to miss! Another key factor is dark surroundings – light pollution from city and suburban lights or the half-lit moon make it more hard to see some of the fainter meteors. The last Perseid outburst was in 2009, NASA reports. Under ideal conditions, that could mean viewing up to 200 shooting stars per hour.
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The Perseids Meteor Shower 2016 is going to be the most intense on August 11 when Earth will pass through the densest and the dustiest area. The best place to watch in Philadelphia is anywhere in an open field with clear views of the sky.
I’ve never heard of a Perseid meteor shower before?
Once a year in August, the Earth crosses floating debris left in the wake of the ancient comet Swift-Tuttle. The shower appears to come from the direction of the constellation Perseus, which gives the meteors their name, but as long as you look away from the bright light of the moon, you should spot them. The Perseids are dust bits from Comet Swift-Tuttle and are famous for creating bright fireballs and elevated meteor activity for almost two weeks in mid-August. Beginning at 10 p.m. ET Thursday, NASA will kick off an overnight livestream video.
They need only to grab a lawn chair or recliner, let their eyes adjust to the dark for about 45 seconds and sit back and watch the sky.
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Possibly. The best times to head outside are around midnight and just before dawn on August 12. Just get away from as much city light as you can (not too hard for us in Arizona!). In the past, stargazers may have witnessed up to 60 flashes of light an hour as meteors hit earth’s atmosphere, but rates could climb to up to 200 meteors per hour this year, according to NASA.
