Star-gazers in Devon rewarded as meteor shower reaches peak

Stargazers have captured a stunning array of photos of the Perseid meteor shower above Exeter.

Tonight Boundary County may have the opportunity to see one of the year’s biggest meteor showers.

The comet the Perseid meteors come from, Swift-Tuttle, is bigger than some of the other comets, causing the Perseid meteor shower to be brighter and bigger than the other ones throughout the year.

The Met Office advises that the best time to see the shooting stars is “late evening and into the hours before dawn”.

Photographs have captured the stunning skies seen in Northumberland and Dorset, as well as Washington State in the US. When Earth crosses paths with Swift-Tuttle’s debris, specks of comet-stuff hit Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate in flashes of light. “Then they will know if the meteor shower will be more intense”, he said.

NASA said this year’s show will be better than most because the gravity of Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, will pull the particles closer.

Conversely, in the Southern Hemisphere, the Delta Aquarids will appear to originate just overhead, and the Perseids will stem from the north.

On Thursday night as well as the meteor shower, Mars, Saturn and the moon aligned.

Catching a glimpse of the meteor shower will very much depend on your location.

Enjoy one of Boundary County’s lesser-known treasures: dark skies without a bunch of city lights, which allows handsome star-filled clear nights.