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Big Show: Perseid Meteor Shower

If the skies are clear, there will be a meteor shower show in in the heavens above North Escambia.

The Perseid meteor shower will peak Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, and astronomers say it will be a good show as earth passes through a swarm of dust shed by periodic comet Swift-Tuttle. NASA says you could see dozens of meteors.

Perseids can appear in any part of the sky, their tails all pointing back to the shower’s radiant in the constellation Perseus. Get away from city lights if you can. There is one light you cannot escape, according to NASA. The 55% gibbous moon will glare down from the constellation Aries just next door to the shower’s radiant in Perseus. The Moon is beautiful, but don’t stare at it. Bright moonlight ruins night vision and it will wipe out any faint Perseids in that part of the sky.

The moon is least troublesome during the early evening hours of August 11th. Around 9 to 11 p.m., both Perseus and the Moon will be hanging low in the north. This low profile reduces lunar glare while positioning the shower’s radiant for a nice display of earthgrazers.

“Earthgrazers are meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond,” explains Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “They are long, slow and colorful—among the most beautiful of meteors.” He notes that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.

Pictured top: Looking northeast around midnight Tuesday, the red dot is the Perseid radiant. Although Perseid meteors can appear in any part of the sky, all of their tails will point back to the radiant. Image courtesy NASA and Spaceweather.com.