This weekend could be prime time to wish upon a shooting star, because the Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a spectacle of lights in the night sky.
The annual Perseid meteor shower should reach its peak in the overnight hours of Sunday, Aug. 11, into early Monday, Aug. 12, according to Space.com. About 50 to 100 meteors can be seen per hour at its peak, with NASA calling it the “best meteor show of the year.”
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Here’s what to know about the display:
What are Perseids?
The Perseid meteors are made up of debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet — which has a 16-mile nucleus, nearly twice the size of the object hypothesized to have led to the dinosaur extinction, according to NASA. The Swift-Tuttle comet takes 133 years to orbit the Sun, and it leaves a trail of debris in its wake.
Each year, Earth passes through the trail, allowing the particles to collide with the atmosphere and disintegrate into fiery streaks in the sky, known as “shooting stars.” Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus, which is the radiant — the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to come, though it is not the actual source.
How to view the meteor shower
On Sunday, the moon sets just after 11 p.m., leaving the sky darkened for prime meteor viewing until the early light of dawn. The pre-dawn hours are also best for Perseid viewing because it is when our side of the Earth turns to face the oncoming meteors more directly, according to Space.com.
To see the meteor shower, just look up at the darkest part of the sky. Meteors should flash across all parts of the sky, and you’ll probably be able to catch one every minute or two. To see more meteors, NASA recommends leaving the city and getting to a dark location away from light pollution. NASA also suggests spreading out a blanket and laying flat on your back to soak up as much of the night sky as possible.
The weather is also important when it comes to meteor watching, because fog or rain can make it harder to see the shooting stars. Thankfully, the current forecast for Sunday shows clear skies and 64 degrees — so you may want to bundle up for a cool summer night if you’re heading outside to watch.
Saturday and Monday nights potentially may be equally as good for meteor viewing since Perseids are active for several days before their peak and a day or two afterward, according to Space.com. The Perseids are active from mid-July through early September, so you may catch a stray shooting star here and there throughout the rest of August.