INDIANA — The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak this weekend, sending bright trails of light streaking across the night sky.
With only a sliver of moon in the sky, conditions this year will be ideal for seeing lots of meteors.
The Perseids — one of the biggest meteor showers we can see — occur every year in the late summer. Meteor showers happen when the Earth moves through fields of debris floating around in space. The Perseids come from comet Swift-Tuttle, a big ball of ice and rock that sheds pieces of dusty debris as it orbits around the sun. When the Earth passes by, those bits get caught in our atmosphere and burn up, creating streaking lights. The Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus because the meteors’ paths appear to start out from this point in the sky.
This year’s shower is already active, but the main event will be this weekend when the shower reaches its peak from Saturday night into Sunday morning. Starting around 11 p.m. local time Saturday, a few meteors will start to show up — maybe one every 15 minutes. They’ll pick up the pace until before dawn on Sunday, when – you’ll see meteors appear all over the place.
During this weekend’s peak, the moon will be a waning crescent — just a small slice in the sky. That’s good news because a bright moon can make it harder to spot the meteors. You don’t need any equipment to see them, but you will need to give your eyes around half an hour to adjust to the dark. Avoid looking at your cell phone since that can ruin your night vision.
The Perseids can appear anywhere in the sky. So just – lie on your back, look away from the moon, and take in as much sky as you can.
