METEOR ALERT!! ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND PROLIFIC METEOR SHOWERS OF THE YEAR PEAKS ON THE 12TH OF THIS MONTH!!! EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER!!! 💖🌒🌠☄️✨
A QUICK SUMMARY OF THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER
- Parent Body: Comet 109P / Swift-Tuttle
- Radiant Constellation: Perseus
- Shower activity between: 16th July – 24th August
- Peak activity: 12th – 13th August
- Peak meteor count: around 100 meteors per hour in perfect conditions
The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most prolific of the annual meteor showers, producing up to 100 meteors (some sources say 150) per hour under perfect conditions. The Perseid meteor shower always put on a great show and is well known for its fast, bright and colourful meteors.
UNFORTUNATELY, this year will not be the best for viewing meteors from the Perseid shower due to the peak night occurring only 4 days after full Moon. This means that the Moon will be very bright, in the sky all night for the nights on and around the peak, and causing a lot of natural light pollution. The bright Moon means that the total number of visible meteors will be much lower than 100, with only the brighter meteors being visible through the moonlit skies.
HOWEVER – It’s still worth heading out on the nights on and around the peak as the Perseids are well known for producing many super bright “fireballs” and the Perseid shower crosses over with the active periods of several other meteor showers, meaning your chances of seeing shooting stars will still be much, much higher than on an average night. We have in fact seen dozens of Perseid meteors over the last few nights even with the Moon in the skies and we are very excited for the peak!
All in all, it’s a great time to spot meteors and well worth spending an hour or two out stargazing and meteor watching on these beautiful and mild summer nights.
If you would like more detailed information on the Perseid meteor shower and meteors in general, including what meteors are, where they come from, what you need to know about to maximise your chances of viewing meteors, please read on…
THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER
The Perseid Meteor Shower is so named because the radiant point from which its meteors appear to radiate from is located within the constellation of the great hero of Legend - Perseus.
The Perseid meteor shower occurs every July to August when the planet Earth passes through a cloud of debris left behind by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. This year the shower is active between the 16th of July to the 24th August and peaks on the evening of the 12th of August.
The famous Perseid meteor shower is one of the annual highlights of many meteor shower calendars due to its high hourly rate, up to 60/100/some sources even suggest 150 meteors per hour in perfect clear and dark conditions! The Perseid shower is well known for its bright meteors which leave long lasting trails and often puts on a spectacular display (if conditions are right). The Perseids are also very fast meteors which typically travel at a velocity of 36 miles per second as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, in mph that’s a speed of roughly 133,200 miles per hour!
THE FIREBALL CHAMPION METEOR SHOWER
For viewers in the Northern Hemisphere, this shower is among the best meteor showers of the year — in fact NASA has called it the "fireball champion" of annual meteor showers for its record-breaking number of extra-bright meteors, called “fireballs”.
A meteor is called a fireball when it reaches a magnitude (brightness) equal to or brighter than that of the planet Venus. Venus is about -4 in magnitude, a meteor must be brighter than this to be known as a fireball. These fireballs are so bright that they can easily be seen in heavily light-polluted areas such as cities.
On rare occasions, it is possible to view meteors that explode and separate into several pieces in the sky. We have been treated to sights of a couple of these at the public stargazing events that we run in Dalby Forest. These explosive meteors are known as “bolides” and can outshine the bright full moon. They are an incredible sight to witness.
WHERE DO METEORS COME FROM? / PARENT BODY – COMET 109P / SWIFT-TUTTLE
Most meteor showers are caused by comet debris that crosses Earth’s orbit, some showers are caused by asteroid debris.
The spectacular Perseid meteor shower, lights up Earth's sky every summer as Earth passes through the trail of debris left by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, a miles-wide behemoth that swings by Earth every 133 years.
Swift-Tuttle, whose nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometres) wide, is the largest solar system object to pass close to Earth repeatedly. Researchers once thought it was likely to hit Earth in 2126 — but the last time it passed Earth, in 1992, astronomers took more precise measurements and calculated that future passes will not be dangerous after all.
The comet orbits the Sun, but follows a very steep incline as compared to the solar system planets — diving down into the solar system to whip around the Sun and back out again. So when the comet passes Earth it is traveling at great speed.
Like all comets, Swift-Tuttle is a ball of dust, ice, rock and dark organic material. It was discovered in July 1862 independently by both Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle.
WHAT CAUSES THE LIGHT FROM METEORS?
As a comet or asteroid travels through space, it leaves a trail of dust and debris behind it. When Earth intersects these trails, we slam into the dust and debris in their wake. The debris then enters the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly high speed, generating immense amounts of energy that is released in the form of intense heat and light. Meteors tend to vary from the size of a sand grain to about as big as a pea, but occasionally can be much larger. The bigger the piece of debris, the bigger and brighter the meteor.
When a meteoroid particle strikes the upper atmosphere at high speed, it heats up to around 1,650°C and starts to glow. The meteoroid also compresses and heats the air in front of it, exciting atoms like oxygen which in turn radiate light. Together, the two processes produce the bright, needle-like flashes known as meteors or "shooting stars."
Occasionally, a meteoroid may be large enough to survive its fiery journey through our atmosphere, landing somewhere on Earth. When a meteoroid manages to land on our planet, it becomes known as a meteorite.
METEOR COLOURS ❤️💙💜🧡💛☄️
When meteoroids burn up in our atmosphere, they can sometimes create beautifully colourful trails behind them. The colours that meteors display are partly caused by the presence of traces of elements such as sodium, iron and calcium, the same elements that are used to make fireworks colourful.
These elements become ionised as they travel through Earth’s atmosphere and emit a beautiful range of different coloured meteor trails as their particles burn up in the atmosphere. The colours that are emitted depend on the elements being excited.
🟠 Orange-yellow — sodium;
🟡 Yellow — iron;
🔵 Blue-green — magnesium;
🟣 Violet — calcium;
🔴 Red — atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen.
The speed at which the meteor enters the Earth’s atmosphere can also affect the colour. The faster a meteor moves, the more intense it’s colour may appear.
THINGS TO CONSIDER TO MAXIMISE YOUR CHANCES OF SEEING METEORS
There are a few things to consider in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors from a meteor shower.
The main thing you need to consider when looking for meteors from a meteor shower is the date when the Earth travels it’s furthest into the trail of debris left by the parent comet or asteroid. Around this period of time there will be a higher number of meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere, this is the peak of the meteor shower.
The next most important thing to consider for many showers is the time that the radiant for the meteor shower will be high in the sky. The higher the radiant is in your visible sky, the higher your chances of viewing meteors will be. However, sometimes the radiant for a shower may not be at its highest point in the sky when the skies are dark.
You must also take the brightness of the skies into account along with the radiant’s location in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors.
There are also other factors such as the Earth weather, the conditions of your viewing location and the Moon’s position and phase that will affect how easy it is to view meteors and need to be considered.
WHEN IS THE PEAK / THE BEST NIGHT TO WATCH?
This year the Perseid meteor shower is active between the 16th July – 24th August, however the peak night where the meteor shower will be most active will be the evening of the 12th of August into the morning of the 13th.
Don’t worry if it’s cloudy on the peak night, it will still be possible to view meteors on either side of the peak during the showers active period.
WHERE TO LOOK / THE RADIANT
To help you know where is best to look for meteors it helps to understand a little about meteor shower radiants.
Meteors from a specific meteor shower will appear to originate from a specific area of the sky which is known as the “radiant”.
The radiant for the Perseid meteor shower can be located in the constellation of the great hero of Legend - Perseus.
At this time of year Perseus can be found below the distinct “W”-like shape of the constellation Cassiopeia.
The exact location for the radiant for the Perseid meteor shower can be found next to the star Miram in Perseus and just below the Heart and Soul Nebulae.
You don’t need to know exactly where meteors radiate from because meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. However, knowing where the radiant is may help you increase your chances of viewing meteors if you follow this top tip:
TOP TIP! - If you can locate the radiant, try looking at a dark part of the sky around 45 degrees away from the radiant to maximise your chances of viewing meteors. Meteors seen closer to the radiant will appear shorter / leave shorter trails compared to others further away from the radiant.
ASTRO DOG RECOMMENDATION ON WHERE TO LOOK - For this year’s Perseids we would recommend looking towards the North and focusing around the area of sky nearby to the constellation of Ursa Minor and the North Star – Polaris. If you focus on this part of the sky you will be looking away from the Moon and roughly around 45 degrees from the radiant.
COOL FACT! - You can tell if a meteor belongs to a specific shower by tracing a line backwards from the direction it appeared to travel in across the sky. If this line leads you close to the radiant’s location, you can safely bet that meteor belonged to that specific meteor shower.
WHAT TIME TO LOOK / RADIANT CONTINUED
To help maximise your chances of viewing meteors and help you know what time is best for meteor watching, it can be helpful to know when a meteor showers radiant rises and when it will be highest in the sky. When the radiant is higher, the amount of visible meteors will be increased.
Fortunately for the Perseids, the radiant is circumpolar, meaning it never travels below the horizon, is always high in the sky, and is well placed for viewers in the Northern hemisphere.
As the best times for a shower is when the radiant is high, this means for the majority of meteor showers, the best time to head out and watch meteor showers is usually on the peak night between midnight and dawn, when the radiant is (usually) high in the sky and the skies are darkest. Don’t worry if you can’t head out this late, there should still be plenty of meteors about earlier in the night.
If you head out early in the night during a meteor shower with a low altitude radiant, you might also be treated to something called an “Earth grazer” meteor (long and slow meteors that skim across the edge of our atmosphere).
WHERE TO VIEW FROM / VIEWING LOCATION / LIGHT POLLUTION
The location that you do your stargazing from can make a big difference to the amount of stars and in this case shooting stars that are possible to see in the night sky. The less light there is around your viewing location, the more your eyes will adapt to the darkness, the darker the skies will be and the more of the fainter meteors from a shower will be visible.
Ideally for meteor showers and generally enjoying the night sky, you want to find a safe dark location, with clear views of the sky, and as far away from sources of light such as street lights as possible.
Even though the Moon will be very bright for the Perseids this year, meaning the overall darkness of the skies will not be at its best, your meteor viewing experience will always be better with as little light around as possible.
DARK ADAPTATION / NIGHT VISION
When out meteor watching, in order to view as many meteors as possible it helps to help your eyes become adapted to seeing faint objects in the sky.
Try not to look at sources of light such as your mobile phone or the Moon for around 15 minutes or so, this will allow your eyes become dark adapted. After around 15-30 minutes of letting your eyes adapt to the dark, the pupils of your eyes will dilate to their maximum aperture and the receptors in your eyes that are responsible for low light vision will have fully activated. This will allow your eyes to gather more light and more fainter night sky objects will be easier to see.
If you need to use a torch to light your way, we recommend using a torch that emits only red light. Red light has much less of an effect on your night vision than white light.
If you want to use your phone, use it on its lowest brightness and you can always cover the screen with a red film to minimise its effect on your night vision. Star map/planetarium apps such as Stellarium often have a night mode that displays only in red light which can also help you keep your night vision.
THE MOON / DARK SKIES
Sometimes, depending on the Moon’s phase, the glow of the Moon can interfere with a meteor shower by illuminating the night sky and washing out the fainter meteors. When the Moon is bright it leaves only the brighter meteors visible.
Unfortunately for this year’s peak night of the Perseid meteor shower, the waning gibbous Moon will be 84% illuminated and in the sky all night long. However, it’s still worth heading out as the Perseids is famous for its high numbers of bright meteors.
A tip that can help you see more on nights with a bright moon is to keep the moon out of sight. Try blocking the moon from your line of sight with your car a tree or building. This can help minimise the Moons effect on your night vision.
OTHER CELESTIAL TREATS TO LOOK OUT FOR
There are also quite a few other celestial treats to look out for during the night at this point in time:
There are several other meteor showers active around this time too! As an extra meteor watching challenge try reverse-tracing the trajectories of the meteors you observe and see if you see any that aren’t part of the Perseid shower!
The amazing ringed planet Saturn will be visible from dark towards the Southeast. Saturn can be found in the constellation of Pisces the fishes - just to the left of the Moon.
If you are observing during the morning of the 12th look to the NorthEastern horizon below Perseus at around 02:30 BST, you may be able to spot the beautiful bright planets Venus and Jupiter rising along with the constellation of Gemini. The two planets will appear close by to each other for several mornings around this date, however on the morning the 12th the pair will appear extremely close together, separated by less than a degree!
The glowing open star cluster the Pleiades (aka the Seven Sisters) can be seen below and right of Perseus in the zodiacal constellation of Taurus during the early morning hours.
Our closest large galactical neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy can be found around 25 degrees above and right of Perseus.
The magnificent globular star cluster M13 can be seen in the constellation of Hercules the hero.
These are just a few of the amazing sights that can be seen in our night skies at the moment.
WHAT ELSE IS IN THE NIGHT SKY THROUGHOUT AUGUST?
RECAP + GENERAL STARGAZING/METEOR SHOWER TIPS
• You don’t need a telescope or any special equipment to view meteors, just your eyes and a bit of patience.
• If you do own binoculars or a telescope, you may want to take a closer look at some of the amazing celestial treats that are currently visible in our night skies. Saturn with its majestic ring system, Jupiter with its great weather bands and great red spot, the Pleiades with its faint nebulous glow, the amazing Andromeda galaxy and the sparkling Hercules cluster all are spectacular to view with binoculars or a telescope.
• Find a safe, dark location with clear unobstructed views and as far away from streetlights as possible. The darker your location, the more meteors you will see. However, don’t worry too much if you can’t get somewhere dark, you should still see the brighter meteors.
• Allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness and you will see more meteors. Our eyes require time to adjust to low levels of light. Try not to look at bright lights (such as a phone) for around 15-30 minutes and this will allow you to see many more meteors. If you do require to use a torch, use one which emits red light as this interferes with your night vision much less than white light.
• Be mindful of other stargazers when using a torch, you don’t want to ruin other people’s meteor shower experience!
• You don’t need to know where the radiant for a meteor shower is to be able to view meteors but if you do, it can help. Once you’ve located the radiant in the sky, looking halfway between the horizon and the zenith (directly upwards), and 45 degrees from the radiant will improve your chances of viewing meteors (however, pay attention to the whole sky as they can appear anywhere). The closer to the radiant you look, the shorter the meteors will appear. The further away from the radiant you look, the longer they will appear.
• You can tell if a meteor belongs to a specific shower by tracing a line backwards from the direction it appeared to travel in across the sky. If this line leads you to the radiant’s location, you can tell that meteor belonged to that specific meteor shower.
• You might want to take a blanket to lay on or a chair to recline in, so your neck doesn’t get strained whilst looking up.
• If you head out, wrap up well! Although currently our nights are fairly mild, it still can get quite chilly and you may end up being too cold to stay out and see any meteors. Bring a blanket to cover yourself in and a flask with a warm drink for extra comfort. ❄️🧤🧣
• You may wish to gather some of your friends and family to share this magical occasion too. You could always host a meteor watching party with music and drinks (but no bright lights!).
CLOSING WORDS FROM ASTRO DOG
We are super excited to have the chance to see some more amazing meteors and are looking forward to the peak of the famous Perseid meteor shower with great anticipation. We have already seen some amazing fireball meteors in the nights running up to the peak. We can’t wait to see if we witness more amazing fireballs during the rest of Perseid meteor shower and we hope you all get to see some too!
As ever, interactions or shares are a great help, and we are eternally grateful for all your support.
Good luck everyone and clear skies!!! 💖
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