Ready to see some shooting stars? The Perseid meteor shower is an annual event and this year’s forecast will be great for viewing in the overnight hours.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 11-13. The shooting stars that you can see in this event come from debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which left behind countless tiny pieces of its tail as it went around the sun.
“When Earth plows into the debris field left by the comet, it kind of looks like the view out of your windshield when you are driving through snowfall,” explained Dr. Wes Ryle of the Cincinnati Observatory in a press release. “The meteors all appear to come from a single point, called the radiant, because the Earth is headed in that particular direction in its orbit.”
To get the best views, you’ll want to get away from well-lighted urban areas as man-made light will obscure the shooting stars as they enter the atmosphere. Additionally, the Cincinnati Observatory said, the first quarter moon will be up until midnight, so it’s better to wait until the morning hours when the moon has already set.
Astronomer Dean Regas passed along some tips for viewing this event and some realistic expectations:
- Lower your expectations! You’ll most likely see 10-20 meteors per hour
- Getting away from city lights and closer to darkness will help you see more meteors
- Bring a comfortable chair — no need for binoculars or a telescope
- Face east from sunset to midnight
- The best viewing is from 2-5 a.m. facing south
- Keep scanning the sky since meteors can come from many directions
The forecast calls for mostly clear skies on all these nights so you should have optimal viewing conditions and great temperatures to sit outside and take in this event.
WCPO’s Jennifer Ketchmark contributed reporting to this brief.