The Delta Aquarid meteor showers will fade just as the Perseid display of shooting stars start to race across the night sky. This duet could deliver a dazzling fortnight of shooting stars.
The Perseid meteor shower is often the most dazzling of any of these annual displays. Some of these annual occurrences result in up to 100 shooting stars each hour. Each year, the event begins in the first week of August and peaks between August 12 and 13.
"Among the dozens of meteor showers that occur each year, four stand out from the rest by producing around 100 or more meteors per hour. The Perseids are one of these four, and are also known for producing the most fireballs of any meteor shower — exceptionally bright meteors that can outshine everything else in the sky," meteorologist Scott Sutherland wrote for The Weather Network.
Meteor showers are one of the most difficult of all astronomical events to predict. They are caused when the Earth, in its orbit around the sun, encounters a trail of debris, often the result of a passing comet. These tiny pebbles are usually between the size of an apple seed and a golf ball. They encounter the atmosphere at great velocities and burn up in the mesosphere of the Earth, between 50 and 60 miles above the surface of our planet.
"Although the Perseid parent body returns to the inner solar system every approximately 130 years, the comet itself was only discovered in 1862 and then re-observed during its last orbit around the sun in 1992. It is not expected to return until 2126. Nevertheless, the comet has probably made hundreds of prior revolutions around the sun," the Armagh Observatory reports.
The Perseid meteor shower has been recorded by human civilizations for more than 2,000 years. This is one of the most reliable of all of these occasionally, yet often disappointing, nighttime displays.
Meteor showers are best seen with no visual equipment, as binoculars and telescopes are useless to capture the sights of meteors due to their short life and unpredictable nature. Those who wish to view the events should head outside to an area far from city lights.
The best views will be seen from locations with a low horizon free from obstructions, to the east and south. The meteors will be seen radiating from a region of the sky low on the eastern horizon just around 10 p.m. local time, moving higher in the sky and farther to the south as the night progresses. By just before local sunrise, the meteors will be seen nearly due south.
This is a great celestial display for kids to experience amateur astronomy.
Photo: John Fowler | Flickr
