Perseid Meteor Shower

Look up! We are in the midst of a Perseids Meteor Shower. In 2022, the Perseid meteor shower will happen from 17 July to 24 August. The peak of the annual Perseids meteor shower will be the night of August 12 and the early morning of August 13, 2022.

What Is A Meteor/Meteor Shower?

Meteors occur when small space debris or dust enters the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrates. We can see this in the nighttime skies as falling or shooting stars. They can be caused by debris as small as grains of sand. When the Earth passes through the tail of debris that follows a comet, a meteor shower occurs. This summer’s Perseids meteor shower is caused by the Earth passing through the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet. The shower will appear to be coming from the constellation Perseus, therefore the name “Perseids Meteor Shower”.

How and Where To Watch the Perseid Meteor Shower

If you want to see the meteor shower at its peak, find a spot away from city lights in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, August 12th. Lie down on a blanket on the ground and lookup. Spacedex.com gives this advice –

Once you have settled down at your observation spot, look approximately half way up the sky facing northeast. This way you can have the Perseids’ radiant within your field of view. Looking directly up at the sky or into the radiant is not recommended since this is just the point in which they appear to come from. You are more likely to see a trail when looking slightly away from this point. Looking half-way up into the sky will lead to the best show in the house!