How, When and Where to Watch the Year's Best Cosmic Light Show
The Perseid meteor shower, one of the best shooting star displays of the year, is set to peak on August 12. It is expected to produce up to 150 meteors per hour and will be visible across the Northern Hemisphere.
The best time to watch the shower is late on August 12, or early the following morning. Stargazers hoping to watch the event should find an area away from light pollution and get settled in a comfortable position, allowing about half an hour for their eyes to acclimatize to the dark.
Alternatively, a live broadcast of the shower will be shown via the Slooh website on August 12 from 8 p.m. Eastern time. Astronomers will discuss the Perseids and answer questions about the meteor shower over the course of the evening.
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You can watch the event live below:
Visit Slooh.com to snap and share your own photos from this live event, interact with the hosts and guests, and personally control Slooh’s telescopes (Courtesy of Slooh ).
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Meteor showers take place when Earth passes through a comet’s debris trail. The tiny particles that are shed from the comet hit Earth’s atmosphere and are vaporized, creating bright streaks across the sky.
The Perseids is one of the more prolific meteor showers of the year, sometimes producing up to 200 meteors per hour. It is associated with the Swift-Tuttle comet, which astronomers discovered in 1862. Records of the meteor shower date back almost 2,000 years.