It鈥檚 August and that means the hottest show in the night sky -- the Perseid meteor shower 听-- will make its annual appearance, peaking in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 11 to 14.
The meteor shower, which tends to build gradually and can produce 50 to 100 meteors per hour, will be active between midnight and dawn and will appear to originate from the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky, according to Matthew Benjamin, a planetary scientist and education program manager at CU-Boulder鈥檚 .
Because the moon is waning -- with visibility of its illuminated area getting smaller, resulting in a darker sky -- this year鈥檚 Perseids are expected to be outstanding.
鈥淭he Perseids are a pretty consistent meteor shower, but it鈥檚 the moon that really makes a good or bad show,鈥� said Benjamin. 鈥淭he moon phase should be quite beneficial to seeing the meteors this year.鈥�
For the best viewpoint, Benjamin advises getting as far away from city lights as possible.
鈥淚 would recommend if you want to go out and see the Perseids, make your way into the mountains,鈥� said Benjamin. 鈥淥r if you鈥檙e in the Denver-Front Range area, get away from the city lights as best you can. Find a real nice dark place that has an eastern view that鈥檚 not obscured and doesn鈥檛 have a lot of city lights looking to the east.
鈥淭his year should be a rather impressive one,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome of the forecasts are saying that this is going to be a large burst of meteors so you could see quite a few.鈥�
Contact:
Matthew Benjamin, 303-492-4073
matthew.benjamin@colorado.edu
Elizabeth Lock, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3117
elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu
(Kim Myoung Sung/Wikipedia Commons)
