Perseid Meteor Shower Lights Up The Week

The annual August meteor shower is one of the most prolific natural light shows of the year with up to 100 shooting stars streaking across the sky per hour at its peak.

A meteor shower usually occurs when the Earth enters a zone that contains the remains of comets. There’s no doubt it’s better to watch away from the city lights, but AccuWeather is also forecasting “fair” conditions for Perseid-viewing in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

A viewing event will be held tomorrow night at the Institute of Astronomy for the spectacular Perseid meteor shower.

Visible across the UK the space station will appear as a dazzling point of light moving rapidly across the sky. But in fact, the real cause of the Perseids is the Earth passing through the debris trail left by comet Swift-Tuttle. This year, it will peak Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Planning to Instagram what you see?

NASA says if you’re somewhere with a dark sky, you can expect up to 100 meteors per hour at the very peak of the meteor shower.

Early rising (or staying up late) can help your chances too – some of the best showings of the meteors can be seen during predawn hours, rather than in the evening.

If cloudy skies prevent a viewing, stargazers will be able to watch Slooh’s live streaming of the shower staring a 8 p.m. EDT on August 12.

Meteors don’t come in any kind of pattern – so you may see several and then have a long wait.

This meteor shower is one of the most plentiful and coincides with warm summer weather in the northern hemisphere, where the meteors are also the most active.

There’s no need to fear that your house could get flattened by a rock falling from space – the Perseids are actually tiny specks of comet hitting the Earth’s atmosphere.

“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.

If you’d like to wish on a shooting star, this week is a great opportunity. If you can get away from city lights you’ll see on average one meteor every minute blaze across the sky. The meteors were appear to radiate out from the constellation Perseus, hence their name: Perseids.