By Emily Clay
The Perseid meteor shower is here! With Comet NEOWISE making its way
out of the solar system, it is time for a celestial show caused by a
different comet. Perseid meteors, caused by debris left behind by the
Comet Swift-Tuttle, began streaking across the skies in late July and
will peak in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 12.
The Perseid meteor shower is often considered to be one of the best
meteor showers of the year due to its high rates and pleasant
late-summer temperatures. This year’s shower, however, has the
unfortunate circumstance of the Moon phase—last quarter—impeding the
view of the shower peak, reducing the visible meteors from over 60 per
hour down to 15-20 per hour. But the Perseids are rich in bright meteors
and fireballs, so it will still be worth going out in the early morning
to catch some of nature’s fireworks. WHEN SHOULD I LOOK?
Make plans to stay up late the night of Aug. 11 or wake up early the
morning of Aug. 12. The Perseids are best seen between about 2 a.m. your
local time and dawn. The Moon rises at around midnight, so its
brightness will affect the peak viewing window. However, even though the
Moon’s phase and presence will keep the frequency of visible meteors
lower, there is still nearly one meteor every two minutes during the
peak!
If those hours seem daunting, not to worry! You can go out after
dark, around 9 p.m. local time, and see a few Perseids. Just know that
you won’t see nearly as many as you would had you gone out during the
early morning hours.
How can you see the Perseids if the weather doesn’t cooperate where
you are? A live broadcast of the meteor shower from a camera at NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, (if our weather
cooperates!) will be available on the NASA Meteor Watch Facebook starting around 8 p.m. CDT on Aug. 11 and continuing until sunrise on Aug. 12. Meteor videos recorded by the NASA All Sky Fireball Network are also available each morning; to identify Perseids in these videos, look for events labeled “PER.” WHY ARE THEY CALLED PERSEIDS?
All meteors associated with one particular shower have similar
orbits, and they all appear to come from the same place in the sky,
called the radiant. Meteor showers take their name from the
location of the radiant. The Perseid radiant is in the constellation
Perseus. Similarly, the Geminid meteor shower, observed each December,
is named for a radiant in the constellation Gemini. HOW TO OBSERVE PERSEIDS
If it’s not cloudy, pick an observing spot away from bright lights,
lay on your back, and look up! You don’t need any special equipment to
view the Perseids – just your eyes. (Note that telescopes or binoculars
are not recommended because of their small fields of view.) Meteors can
generally be seen all over the sky so don’t worry about looking in any
particular direction.
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