NASA predicts the Perseids \u2014 the annual meteor shower famous for its fireballs and bountiful shooting stars \u2014 will be the most dazzling meteor show of 2026, and it sweeps into South Carolina skies July 17. Earth travels through the Perseid meteor shower through its Aug. 12 peak into the dawn of Aug. 13.<\/p>\n
But every clear night offers the chance to see 100 shooting stars per hour, some colored a deep teal-green, and big fireballs so close to Earth, stargazers may be able to hear them sizzle as they tear into Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The American Meteor Society describes fireballs as “explosions of light and color that are brighter and last longer than the average meteor.\u201d Normal meteors burn up at 50 to 75 miles high.<\/a> But fireballs plunge to 20-30 miles above Earth. giving gazers time to see their path clearly. (By contrast, shooting stars leave astronomy buffs a blink-and-its-gone glimpse.)<\/p>\n NASA suggests the best time to see the shower is in the hours before dawn, though meteors can appear as early as 10 p.m.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to see The Perseid:<\/a> In the Lowcountry, wait till midnight when the constellation Perseus and Cassiopeia clear the humid coastal haze (3 a.m. is forecast as the ideal viewing time). The best advice is to look straight up at the sky. Bring a reclining lawn chair to avoid the buggy ground. Don\u2019t use a telescope, which limits the view. Alternatively,<\/a> an astronomy app can help locate Perseus, the constellation that gives the shower its name. Look above and to the right of Perseus, not directly at it, to see shooting stars streak across the sky.<\/p>\n July 30-31 enhance the chances of seeing shooting stars when two meteor showers, the Southern Delta Aquarlids and Alpha Capricornids, glitter in the sky together.<\/p>\n The South Carolina State Museum\u2019s planetarium manager Liz Klimek once witnessed a meteor shower that any astronomy buff would love to experience. It happened one winter while she was still a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student working on her master\u2019s degree in astronomy and physics. (She also has a PhD in astronomy from New Mexico State University.) Klimek drove through a frosty landscape into a rural area far from city lights.<\/p>\n \u201cI parked the car near a cornfield and waited,\u201d she told The Post and Courier.<\/p>\n The meteor shower gave her an amazing show of shooting stars and fireballs so close \u201cI could hear them sizzle.\u201d<\/p>\n