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United States Change. That means you'll see the most meteors in the shortest amount of time near that time. Years without moonlight see higher rates of meteors per hour, and in outburst years such as in the rate can be between meteors an hour. This year, you can expect to see up to 60 meteors per hour at the shower's peak, according to Earthsky.
Amazing Pics: Stunning Perseid meteor shower photos by stargazers Webcasts: Perseid meteor shower How to watch it live. If you know a youngster who can't get enough of the moon, then they'll be delighted with views through the Orion GoScope II.
Revealing craters and seas up close, this little telescope comes with a carry case and moon map. Last year, the bright moonlight didn't obscure the view of the meteor shower too badly, but the moon's glow is a continuing concern for skywatchers looking for a clear view.
Even though the Perseids are especially bright, moonlight can make viewing a bit tricky. You can see the Perseid meteor shower best in the Northern Hemisphere and down to the mid-southern latitudes, and all you need to catch the show is darkness, somewhere comfortable to sit and a bit of patience.
The Perseids will appear as quick and small streaks of light. NASA states that as a comet's path brings it closer to the Sun, some of its icy surface "boils off", releasing a lot of debris, water and gas out into space. Earth comes in contact with this debris every year as it completes its revolution around the Sun.
These meteoroids or space rocks, which are a lot smaller than asteroids, strike the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate in a fiery phenomenon that is commonly known as a shooting star. Ideally, the Perseids are best viewed in the Northern Hemisphere during the hours just before dawn. But sometimes, people can catch them as early as 10 pm. NASA also suggests staying up late, or waking up between pre-dawn hours on the nights of August.
The meteors will be less visible within city limits, due to higher artificial light pollution. So, a safe spot on the outskirts, where there isn't much pollution and few to no buildings to obscure the view, is ideal. No telescopes or binoculars are needed to observe a meteor shower.
The average speed for a Perseid meteor is 36 miles per second. The air in front of the meteor is squashed and heated to thousands of degrees Celsius. The smaller meteors vaporise and leave behind a bright trail of light. Larger meteors can explode as fireballs. Giovanni Schiaparelli was the first to realise the connection between meteor showers and comets.
Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle had discovered a new comet which now bears their names two years before Schiaparelli announced that the orbit of this comet coincides with the path that the source material for the Perseids take.
Find out the difference between an asteroid, a comet, a meteor, and a meteorite in the video below. Perseus was a hero who beheaded the Gorgon Medusa and later married Andromeda according to Greek Myths.
This article has been written by an astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Explore space and time at the Royal Observatory. See amazing space photography. See the world's greatest space photography at the National Maritime Museum. Sign up for an astronomy course. Learn everything you need to know about space and astronomy. Join us at the Royal Observatory or sign up for an online course.
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