Perseid – one of the strongest meteor showers of the year in the Northern Hemisphere – peaks on the evening of August 12th-13th. This meteor shower usually brings up to 75 “shooting stars” per hour, but this year there is a major problem. It’s almost a full moon.
Meteor showers are always the most common in dark moonless sky. However, the full sturgeon moon in August will rise on Saturday, August 9th. The moon always orbits the Earth, so it rises every day, but in summer it makes less difference. By Tuesday, August 12th, it will rise almost at the same time as it begins to darken, making the windows in the moonless night sky very short.
For example, on August 9 in New York, the sun sets at 8:27pm EDT, with 84% irradiated decaying Gibbsmoon rising around 10:01pm and remains in the sky for the rest of the night, depending on the time and date. Astronomical Twilight – if you may see “Shooting Star” – will not start until 10:28 PM. As Perseid peaks around midnight, there is no ideal time for peak nights when the night sky is properly dark.
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But everything is not lost. According to the American Meteor Society, the peaks on August 12-13 are particularly strong, so you should still see shooting stars in the clear sky, despite not being able to find anything like the 50-75 hour meteor star that is sometimes seen in dark country sky. Peak nights may still be the best time to see.
It also helps the moon follow a low arc across the southern sky – the same as when it’s close to the perfect stage in summer, but your expectations must be conservative. A handful of bright “shooting stars” can be found in most observers.
The best advice is to look at your back on the moon. Because the moon is in the south, it serves double purpose, but the sparkling point of Perseid (located in the constellation Perseius) rises in the northeast.
With each night after peak, the moon rises later and opens its windows for a moonless sky after sunset. However, there is not an ideal time to see the Perseid Meteor shower this year, as there is a considerable fee soaking after a peak night.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is the result of dust and debris left in the inner solar system by a giant comet called Swift-Tuttle. At about 16 miles (26 kilometers) in diameter, it is the last in the inner solar system in 1992, and will not be seen again until 2125, according to NASA.
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