While the days of August are accompanied by radiant sunshine, many of the warm nights are filled with a dazzling display of “shooting stars,” courtesy of the annual Perseid meteor shower. This is one of the best meteor showers of the year — following the Geminids and the Quadrantids — and the mysterious spectacle will reach its peak on the night from Monday to Tuesday. But unlike winter meteor showers, you won’t have to bundle up to watch the shower of stars, except perhaps to wear long sleeves to keep the mosquitoes away.
The breathtaking summer display beautifies the skies of the Northern Hemisphere from mid-July until August each year. All skywatchers need to do is find dark skies, preferably outside the city.
According to the International Meteor Organization, skywatchers in clear and dark sky conditions can expect to see 50 to 75 meteors per hour. The luckiest observers may see up to a meteor a minute, more or less, according to Peter Veres, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA). The Perseids are “one of the most active showers of the year,” Peter Veres explains.
Shooting stars and meteors are the same thing. A meteor is any piece of space rock, interstellar stone, or other debris that burns up in a planetary atmosphere. Every year, Earth passes through trails of debris left by the Swift-Tuttle comet that passed by the planet in 1992.
Meteors the size of grains of rice burn up as they travel through Earth’s outer atmosphere, creating long-tailed meteors, bright flashes, and even some fireballs, says Ted Bergin, an astronomy professor at the University of Michigan (USA). During the peak of the display, Earth will be traveling through the center of the debris pile, he adds.
“There will be bright flashes crossing the sky that will have only one tail,” says Ted Bergin. According to the International Meteor Organization, meteors will travel across the sky at 37 miles per second — so don’t blink or you might miss them.
“Comets are some of the oldest materials in the solar system. That’s why we are seeing some of the oldest pieces of the solar system burning up in Earth’s atmosphere,” explains Bergin.
Every year we see the meteors at the same time, reliably, because we encounter the same debris cloud in the same location of our annual orbit around the Sun.
If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you’re in luck. Residents in the region will have the best views for the spectacle. The meteors will be easier to see as soon as it gets dark.
If you don’t want to stay up until the early hours of the morning, you can also have a great view after the Moon sets. And if you miss the show at its peak, the encore the following night can be equally rewarding.
The light of the Moon might slightly overwhelm the faintest meteors, as it will illuminate 44% of Sunday night, according to the American Meteor Society.
For stargazers: since the Perseids “originate” from the constellation of Perseus, the epicenter of the show will be there. If you can’t find Perseus, you can also look for Cassiopeia, which looks like a slightly irregular W in the sky, and the center of the shower will be below it.
Ted Bergin also suggests looking in the direction of the star births, which rise in the east and set in the west.
“You don’t have to be looking at a specific point, because meteors cross the sky with a huge trajectory,” said Bergin.
More tips from the experts:
— Look for darkness. It can be in a location away from the city or, if you can’t go to a rural area, seek the darkest part of the sky wherever you are.
— Leave your phone at home. Whenever we look at our phones, our eyes take about 15 minutes to readjust to the darkness. Looking at a device before turning to the sky can ruin your innate night vision.
— Be patient. Just because there is an average count doesn’t mean you will see that number of meteors per hour.
Exclusive PÚBLICO/The Washington Post