![]() ![]() ![]() Then lie back and take in a large swath of the night sky. That will allow your eyes to adjust to the dark. To see as many meteors as possible, wait 30 to 45 minutes after you get to your viewing location. Meteor showers are usually best viewed when the sky is darkest, after midnight but before sunrise. “I would suggest contacting them and finding out where they have their location,” Robert Lunsford, the secretary general of the International Meteor Organization, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2022. Many cities have an astronomical society that maintains a dedicated dark sky area. People in rural areas may have the luxury of just stepping outside. The best practice is to head out to the countryside and get as far from artificial light sources as possible. Subscribe to the Times Space and Astronomy Calendar to get a reminder ahead of this and other events. A NASA fireball network started detecting Perseid meteors on July 26, so your prospects may be good. Nobody knows exactly how many meteors may be seen, though some predict around 100 per hour under dark skies. This year, the moon will be a slim crescent in the sky, and our planet will be running into a trail of dust that Swift-Tuttle released in 68 B.C., meaning that conditions should be good for the shower. The shower is visible only in the Northern Hemisphere, in latitudes below 60 degrees north. Originating from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which comes back often through the inner solar system, the Perseids frequently put on a great show. Warm summer nights and high rates of fireballs make the Perseids one of the most popular showers of the year. The regularity of orbital mechanics means that any given meteor shower happens at roughly the same time each year, with the changing phases of the bright moon being the main variable affecting their visibility. These small particles burn up in the atmosphere, leading to blazing trails of light. Meteor showers occur when our planet runs into the debris fields left behind by icy comets or rocky asteroids going around the sun. 1 but reaches its peak over the weekend, from Saturday, Aug. The next event is the Perseids, which lasts until about Sept. But on special dates scattered throughout the year, skywatchers can catch a multitude of flares as meteor showers burst in the darkness. ![]() On any given night, far from bright city lights, there’s a chance that you’ll see a beautiful streak shoot across the sky as a meteor flies overhead. ![]()
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