How do I know the sky is dark enough to see meteors? Meteors will instantly grab your attention as they streak by. Once you have settled at your observing spot, lie back or position yourself so the horizon appears at the edge of your peripheral vision, with the stars and sky filling your field of view. Look for state or city parks or other safe, dark sites. in mid-August.Īfter you've escaped the city glow, find a dark, secluded spot where oncoming car headlights will not periodically ruin your sensitive night vision.

Perseid meteors will appear to 'rain' into the atmosphere from the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeast around 11 p.m. Driving south may lead you to darker skies, but the glow will dominate the northern horizon, where Leo rises. Get away from the glow of city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate.įor example, drive north to view the Leonids. If you're lucky enough to spot a meteorite (a meteor that makes it all the way to the ground), and see where it hits, it's easy to think you just saw a star 'fall.' How can I best view a meteor shower? When a meteor appears, it seems to 'shoot' quickly across the sky, and its small size and intense brightness might make you think it is a star. Almost all are destroyed in this process the rare few that survive and hit the ground are known as meteorites. Traveling at tens of thousands of miles an hour, meteoroids quickly ignite from the searing friction with the atmosphere, 30 to 80 miles above the ground. 'Shooting stars' and 'falling stars' are both names that describe meteors - streaks of light across the night sky caused by small bits of interplanetary rock and debris called meteoroids vaporizing high in Earth's upper atmosphere. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is in the constellation Leo. Meteor showers are named for the constellation that coincides with this region in the sky, a spot known as the radiant. Although the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, if you trace their paths, the meteors in each shower appear to 'rain' into the sky from the same region. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. As a comet orbits the Sun it sheds an icy, dusty debris stream along its orbit. Most meteor showers are spawned by comets. What is a meteor shower?Ī meteor shower is a spike in the number of meteors or 'shooting stars' that streak through the night sky. Bright moonlight makes it difficult to see all but the brightest meteors. NOTES These are approximate times for the Lower 48 states actual shower times can vary.

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