Perseid Meteor Shower – “Conditions this year couldn’t be more perfect”
Baku, August 12, AZERTAC
It’s August, and that heralds one of the year’s most beloved celestial events. The Perseid meteor shower will grace the skies, peaking this weekend on Saturday night to Sunday morning, August 12-13, according to SciTechDaily.
The Perseid meteor shower, a celestial event eagerly awaited by millions of skywatchers around the world, is about to make its annual return to the night sky. The shower is predicted to reach its peak before dawn on Sunday, August 13th, but viewers should plan to start looking for meteors already at nightfall on Saturday, August 12th. In a dark site away from light pollution, at the peak of the shower, observers might see one meteor per minute!
“Conditions this year couldn’t be more perfect,” says Diana Hannikainen, Sky & Telescope’s Observing Editor. “The waning crescent Moon, which is only 8% illuminated, rises in the wee hours of the morning on August 13th and won’t interfere with viewing.” In addition, the fact that the peak coincides with a weekend night means people can stay up late — or even all night! — without worrying about being late for school or work. “The main thing that could hamper enjoyment of the spectacle would be clouds or light pollution,” Hannikainen cautions.
These “shooting stars” can appear anywhere and everywhere in the sky — you don’t have to look toward the radiant to see them. The best direction to watch is wherever your sky is darkest, usually straight up. Faint Perseids appear as tiny, quick streaks. Occasional brighter ones might sail across the sky for several seconds and leave a brief train of glowing smoke.
Meteors are caused by tiny, sandgrain- to pea-size bits of dusty debris striking the top of Earth’s atmosphere approximately 80 miles (130 km) up. Each Perseid zips in at 37 miles per second (133,000 miles per hour), glowing as it burns to soot and creating a quick, white-hot streak of superheated air. The nuggets in Grape Nuts cereal are a close match to the estimated size, color, and texture of typical meteor-shower particles.
The Perseid bits were shed long ago by Comet Swift-Tuttle and are distributed all along the comet’s orbital path around the Sun. Earth passes through this tenuous “river of rubble” every year in mid-August. The comet is so named because it was independently discovered by Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle in July 1862.
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