- Star-studded rain: Map showing how clear the night sky is near you
Mid-Summer is Meteor Shower Season: Mid-August brings the legendary Perseid meteor shower, making countless shooting stars visible to the naked eye. This year, the meteor storm will be best observed early Monday morning and overnight into Tuesday. With clear skies, observers can expect to see a meteor streak across the sky every two minutes.
Meteor Showers for Night Owls and Early Birds
The first Perseids appear in the sky as early as late July. Their numbers increase before reaching their peak on the coming Monday afternoon - precisely when it's daylight in Germany. However, according to the Association of Star Friends and the House of Astronomy in Heidelberg, 20 to 30 meteors per hour will still be visible in the nights around the maximum, from Sunday to Monday and Monday to Tuesday.
Map: How Clear is the Night Sky Where You Are
Trail to the Constellation Perseus
The August meteors have long marked a fixed date in the astronomical calendar for meteor enthusiasts. The Perseids are the only major meteor shower in summer and one of the most prolific. They are named after the constellation Perseus, from which they appear to emanate - a point astronomers call the radiant.
Meteors are Comet Dust
In reality, meteors come from Earth's immediate vicinity. Every year between mid-July and late August, our planet crosses a cloud of tiny particles left behind by the 1862-discovered comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle on its orbit around the sun. When Earth encounters this cosmic dust trail, the often pinhead-sized particles of comet dust enter Earth's atmosphere at 60 kilometers per second - that's 216,000 kilometers per hour. At heights of 80 to 100 kilometers, these small dust particles create the light phenomena we call meteors. In fact, it's not the particles themselves that glow, but the air around them, heated by friction.
Larger meteors shine as brightly as bright stars and planets. Even brighter, but correspondingly rarer, are the so-called fireballs, which often leave a colorful, glowing trail behind them.
No Special Equipment Needed
No special equipment is needed to observe the Perseids - a lounge chair or sleeping mat and a good all-around view are sufficient. Binoculars or telescopes are even hindrances for spotting the quickly burning meteors, as their field of view is too small for the swift sky-crossers.
The best viewing opportunities are on a site far from light-polluted cities. Those who want to photograph the meteor shower should use a wide-angle lens, mount the camera on a tripod, and choose a long exposure.
The following meteor shower, the Perseids, begins to appear in the sky as early as late July. According to astronomers, the following Perseid meteors will still be visible in the nights around the peak, from the Sunday to Tuesday.
