You might want to pencil in a Saturday afternoon nap.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is already underway, but the peak of the shower is just ahead of us. This weekend, on the night of August 12th and into the morning of August 13th, get your lawn chair out and point it to the Northeast. "If it's cloudy [on Saturday] we can view it all week," says Bob King. "It begins in mid-July... it's kind of a lengthy shower." The shower is a result of the Earth passing through the debris of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
The Perseids are so named due to the meteors appearing as if they are coming from the constellation Perseus. Moonlight won't be an issue, but patience may be required. "The later you stay up... the higher Perseus comes up in the sky and the fewer meteors get cut off by the horizon," says King. "You could see up to a meteor a minute."
Bob King will be up at Voyaguers National Park this weekend for a meteor watching event. The skies at the park are some of the darkest in the country. For more information go to the Voyaguers website.
You can hear Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy every other Tuesday at 8:20am on Northland Morning.
