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Shooting Star Show Set for Wednesday Night |
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Cosmic dust, some of which has been wafting through space since the American Civil War, is renewing a summer ritual by slamming into Earth's atmosphere, lighting up the night sky with shooting stars whose numbers are building to a peak on Aug. 12.
The return of the Perseid meteor shower marks one of the most rewarding skywatching events of the year. No matter how many other night sky shows fail to meet expectations, the Perseids rarely falter. Only two weeks straight of cloudy skies can completely spoil the shower.
The Perseids began in mid-July, with one or two meteors streaking through the sky each evening. Activity is slowly picking up in advance of the peak, when dozens of shooting stars will be visible each hour from dark skies.
Though they vary, the Perseids are more predictable than most meteor showers. And while never grand on the scale of historic meteor storms caused by the November Leonid meteor shower, the Perseids are dependable.
From the Costa Blanca the show should be spectacular. The only hindrance is artificial light.
The Perseids regularly produce 50 to 150 meteors per hour -- more than 1 per minute -- under dark skies. There have been years when they produced only a handful, and other years when the count soared above 200 per hour. The first records of the shower date back to 36 A.D., with a Chinese account of "more than 100 meteors" being sighted one early morning.
The best times to watch will be the overnight hours on Aug. 11/12 and Aug. 12/13, astronomers say. The peak is forecast to occur Aug. 12, between 22:30 and 24:00.
“Those who have dry transparent air (such as the Costa Blanca) may be able to see up to 50 Perseids an hour," during the peak, said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society. Hazy humid conditions would reduce that count.
A dozen or more per hour could also be visible a night or two before the peak, and then a night or two after. The shower continues through about Aug. 22, by which time it will have wound back down to just 1 to 2 meteors per hour.
Also, up to 10 shooting stars not associated with the Perseids occur every hour of every night this time of year. These other meteors, which are typically not as bright as the Perseids, can approach from any direction in the sky.
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