Twinkle twinkle little meteor

Keep your eyes peeled from August 11 to 13. If you are lucky, you will get a glimpse of the Perseids Meteor Shower at its peak. The meteor shower will remain active until August 24.

The Perseids Meteor Shower will be hard to miss as they “frequently leave long ‘wakes’ of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth’s atmosphere. “The Perseids are one of the most plentiful showers (50-100 meteors seen per hour)… Perseids are also known for their fireballs, larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.” (https://go.nasa.gov/3C7eLIw)

Fun fact: the Perseids are named after their radiant. The radiant is the point in the sky where meteors seem to come from. They appear to come from the constellation Perseus, but it is actually from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Three years after the comet was discovered in 1862, Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, connected the Perseids back to Swift-Tuttle.

5 important tips on watching a meteor shower are:

• Make sure the sky is dark and relatively clear
• Find a spot away from bright lights
• Give time for your eyes to adjust to the darkness.
• Watch the sky between midnight and dawn
• Bring a chair and some food (you might be waiting for a while)