The Perseids: How to View Nature's Fireworks Display Tonight!
Do you remember the 1st time you saw a brilliant shooting star streaking across the sky?
Well late this evening just focus your gaze northeast into the night sky and you may see upwards of 80 per hour!
How?
The annual Perseids meteor shower peaks tonight (technically it peaks at 2pm EST this afternoon, but you get the picture...).
Don't worry, we've got ALL the tips for maximizing your Perseids viewing party tonight...whether you're in the city or the country.
The Perseids are one of the most dependable meteor showers of the year.
In fact, they're the best meteor shower of the year to view if you don't want to brave the winter cold to do so -- since they're 2nd only to the December Geminids.
So How Do Your Watch the Perseids?
- Get Away From Artificial Light: If at all possible, get out of the city a little ways since its light pollution will obscure your view of the stars, hence, the meteor shower.
- Look Northeast: Since the Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky, that's the direction you'll focus on.
Astronomy.com has some more specific tips that will be incredibly helpful for maximum Perseids viewing:
"Early in the evening on Wednesday, August 12, set up a lawn chair, preferably one that reclines. Face east, and look halfway up. After midnight (around the time of moonrise), adjust your chair, and generally look overhead. Glancing around won't hurt anything."- Drive Northeast Too: If you live in the city and are going to get out of town about 20-40 miles to catch the show, you won't want to drive to the south, for example, and then have to look back through the light pollution of the city glow when you look Northeast.
So go ahead and drive north or northeast to find a good spot to set up camp.
- Maximize Your Night Vision: Give your eyes about 15 minutes to adjust to the dark and then do NOT look at the moon, your cell phone screen, a flashlight, etc. It will take another 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust again. Boo.
- Timing Is Everything: The best time to view the Perseids is between midnight and dawn, you local time. That said, NASA says viewing between 9pm-11pm, when both Persus and the competing moon are low on the horizon, will give you the best chance to see a magnificent "Earthgrazer".
What's an Earthgrazer?
"Earthgrazers are meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond...They are long, slow and colorful—among the most beautiful of meteors...an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile."- Be Alcohol-Free: The aforementioned Astronomy.com articles goes on to say,
"In addition to your chair, bring a blanket, bug spray, cookies, fruit, and a non-alcoholic beverage (alcohol interferes with the eye's dark adaption as well as the visual perception of events)."Well that's no fun. Oh well, drink or don't drink, we won't tell...
The Perseids Are Already Streaking Across Twitter
The Perseid meteor shower was all the buzz on Twitter yesterday (by the way, you can follow me too - @JSDavis82). Here's what some of the folks I follow were saying:
@LighterFootstep: "The Perseid meteor shower actually peaks around 2pm Eastern Wednesday. So you can try watching tonight or Wed. evening."
@DaveBurdick: "RT @agahran: Reminder, everyone in Northern hemisphere: #Perseid meteor shower tonight, wed (peak) & Thurs after 11pm DON'T MISS!!!"
@YahooGreen: "We can't wait for tonight's Perseid meteor shower. Anyone else planning on catching Nature's light show? http://bit.ly/3nvaZW"
@Current: "ASTRONOMERS: remember, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower should be visible starting tonight. here's a guide http://su.pr/5WU6OG"
@TheEcoFoodie: "Biggest meteor showers of the year TONIGHT >> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/perseids/. I'll be up watching."
@SageMcGreen: "I saw about a dozen shooting stars streak across the night sky during the Perseids meteor shower. It was worth getting up."
@TheGoodHuman: "I should go outside soon and look for the meteor shower, no?"
As you can see, some of them were talking about already viewing the Perseids. Since the peak of the meteor shower is today at 2pm EST, you could have basically flipped a coin as to whether you wanted to watch them last night or tonight.
So get out of the city (it'll do you some good), kick back in the [hopefully] cool summer night air and enjoy one of nature's fireworks display. The best part is, these fireworks won't give you lead poisoning...
Please feel free to email me any pics you're able to snag of the Perseids this year. Have fun at your Perseid party!
Great question Nancy! The Perseids are best viewed when the constellation Perseus rises high in the night sky. Unfortunately for the southern hemisphere, Perseus remains low on the horizon this time of year. So unless you're in the small minority of South America that lies above the equator, you'll still be able to see some Perseids, just not as many as those of us in the northern hemisphere. And regarding what time is best, the times mentioned in the post are all local time. So 11pm-dawn tomorrow for your local time is ideal.
That said, the best chance you have for seeing an "Earthgrazer", as mentioned above in the post, is when Perseus is low on the horizon. So even though you won't be able to see the great number of meteorites, you just may catch a glimpse of several slow moving, bright burning earthgrazers streaking up into the sky from the horizon.
Please do let us know if you were able to see any of the show tonight!
P.S., i did find this helpful website that will help you catch the best meteor showers for the southern hemisphere...but unfortunately, yall get left out of a lot of the major showers. Looks like the cosmos is a little prejudice.
Can the Perseids be seen from South America?
Where and what time? There is a four hours difference here (ahead of California time)