WASHINGTON \u2014 Summer’s most dazzling meteor shower, the Perseids, peaks early Wednesday. At the same time, Venus and Jupiter will converge in the sky \u2014 overlapping like a very bright star.<\/p>\n
If your focus is the meteor shower, it’s worth knowing that this year a bright moon will dampen viewing during the pre-dawn peak, so some experts recommend waiting a week or so to glimpse shooting stars against a darker sky.<\/p>\n
The Perseids “are an incredible meteor shower,\u201d said Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium program coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Under dark skies with no moon, the Perseids can produce between 60 to 100 meteors per hour, he said. Since the moon will be around 84% full during the peak, skywatchers might expect between 10 to 20 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year I\u2019m actually recommending that people go out a little bit later” \u2014 a week or so past the peak when the moon will not be as bright, LaCoursiere said.<\/p>\n
Viewing of the Perseids lasts until August 23.<\/p>\n
What is a meteor shower?<\/p>\n
As the Earth orbits the sun, several times a year it passes through debris left by passing comets and sometimes asteroids.<\/p>\n
The source of the Perseids is debris from comet 109P\/Swift-Tuttle.<\/p>\n
When these fast-moving space rocks enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere, the debris encounters new resistance from the air and becomes very hot, eventually burning up.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the surrounding air glows briefly, leaving behind a fiery tail \u2014 the end of a \u201cshooting star.\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need special equipment to see the various meteor showers that flash across annually, just a spot away from city lights.<\/p>\n
How to view a meteor shower<\/p>\n
The best time to watch a meteor shower is in the early predawn hours when the moon is low in the sky.<\/p>\n
Competing sources of light \u2014 such as a bright moon or artificial glow \u2014 are the main obstacles to a clear view of meteors. Cloudless nights when the moon wanes smallest are optimal viewing opportunities.<\/p>\n
And keep looking up, not down. Your eyes will be better adapted to spot shooting stars if you aren\u2019t checking your phone.<\/p>\n
When is the next meteor shower?<\/p>\n
The next major meteor shower, the Orionids, peaks in late October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Summer’s most dazzling meteor shower, the Perseids, peaks early Wednesday. At the same time, Venus and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[52455,12976,19773,994,51837,159,66491,82877,783,67,132,68,34643],"class_list":{"0":"post-138326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-comet-109p-swift-tuttle","9":"tag-jupiter","10":"tag-meteor-shower","11":"tag-moon","12":"tag-perseids","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-shooting-stars","15":"tag-skywatchers","16":"tag-space","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-venus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115013042094639119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}