Perseids meteor peaks next week

It is never too early to start thinking about the Perseids! The Perseids are my favorite meteor shower of the year and are the most active or second most active meteor shower of the year. (The Geminid meteor shower in December produces about the same number of meteors. Both showers produce about four times more than any other shower during the year typically does.) 

I rank the Perseids higher than the Geminds for a few reasons: 

1) The Perseids occur in mid-August, when it’s very comfortable to be outdoors. The Geminids occur in December

2) The Perseids provide better looking meteors. They are multi-colored and often leave shimmering trails.

3) The Perseids come from a point very close to the Milky Way, so you can stare at our galactic center while counting meteors! 

The 2020 version of the Perseid meteor shower will probably not be quite as active as the Gemininds. The main reason is that the moon will rise shortly after midnight, making it hard to see the faint meteors. 

Check out some of my shots from last year's show.

Even though the Perseids will be most active after midnight, I encourage people to start looking once it gets dark in the evening. You will be more likely to see a long-lived, bright meteor fly across a large portion of the sky during the evening. Plus, the moon rises after midnight, and it will wash out some meteors. 

Check out this incredible compilation of Perseids from the last two years. Whole night Perseid mosaic via SpaceWeather.com.

To get the most out of your Perseid meteor viewing experience, follow these steps: 

1) Dedicate a solid hour to doing nothing but looking for meteors. If you look for only a few minutes, you might not see any. 

2) Make yourself comfortable. Lay back on a lounge chair or a blanket on the grass. Don’t sit in a normal chair and look up; your neck will quickly get tired. 

3) Avoid looking at ANY source of light. No phones! Turn off all exterior lights. Try not to look directly at the moon either (for those watching after midnight).

The source of the meteors is debris left by a passage of a comet. Every year, the Earth travels through the debris field of the comet named Swift-Tuttle.

The comet orbits the sun every 133 years. It has a very unusual orbit. It comes into the inner solar system, only to reach past the orbit of Pluto. It passed closest to the sun back in 1992. There has been some concern that the comet will eventually pass close enough to pose a threat to Earth.

The nucleus is 16 miles across, more than double the size of the object that may have been responsible for extinction of the dinosaurs. It is the largest object to approach so close to Earth on a regular basis.

Viewing conditions will be coming soon. Keep checking back for more updates. Thanks for reading. Just look up; you never know what you will see.

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