Meteor shower forecast: Mostly clear for tonight’s celestial show

If you have plans to view the Perseid Meteor shower, the peak will be after midnight and through early Wednesday.

This year the advantage for taking a peek at the Perseids is the moon, which is in its new moon stage creating the darkest skies of its cycles – a boon for stargazers. “As Perseus rises and the night deepens, meteor rates will increase”, NASA explained. “The Perseids feature fast and bright meteors that frequently leave trains, and in 2015 there will be no moonlight to upstage the shower”. But you will still be able to see them until August 25. Mostly clear skies are expected across the entire state.

“This is an especially good year to take the kids out and look for it”, said Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of the astronomy department at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.

A Met Office spokeswoman said Welsh skygazers may also get the chance to see some shooting stars early this evening, but the heavens will close up as clouds settle over the nation. You can experience one meteor per minute at the peak of this episode of the meteor shower. “The later you stay up the greater frequency of meteors you will observe; the best time is 2 a.m.to 3 a.m”.

“There will be an extra treat when the worldwide Space Station, with six astronauts on board, will blaze across the sky”, he added. “And it will be the brightest thing in the sky, apart from aircraft”. The meteors were appear to radiate out from the constellation Perseus, hence their name: Perseids.

The story behind the Perseid Meteor shower is that the earth is plowing its way through a river of dust and space particles are left behind by passing comets.

It is caused by pieces of dust which have fallen from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which was last seen in 1992 and is not due back across our skies for 130 years.