Observers around the world are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Perseid meteor shower tonight, which will be at its peak from 10 to 14 August 2024. The first crescent moon will give free rein to this cosmic spectacle at the time of its climax.
If the Perseids meteor shower are visible from mid-July to the end of August, you will only see a few meteors per hour for most of this period. But from 10 to 14 August, we can see an average of 90 shooting stars per hour. And this year, the climax of the rain of shooting stars will coincide with a thin crescent moon, which will rise very quickly after dark.
If the sky is clear, this deep darkness should offer a splendid night on the evening of August 10, with peaks of up to 120 shooting stars per hour visible in the countryside. Amateur astronomers in Europe, on the east coast of North America and the Middle East should be best placed for this observation session.
You can start hunting the Perseids meteor shower as soon as you go after dark, but the best time will be just after midnight (local time) and the hours before dawn on August 11 and 12. The meteors will be visible even under the suburban heavens, but it will be expected that about half as many shooting stars as in the countryside. Wherever you are, leave it to your eyes for about half an hour to adapt to the darkness before you start looking at the sky.
The Perseids meteor shower tonight
The Perseids meteor shower illuminate our heavens as the Earth passes through a cloud of fragments left by comet Swift-Tuttle, which last walked near the sun in 1992. As the comet sneaks into our solar system, its ice evaporates and releases debris from a size from grains of sand to larger rocks. The particles spread along the comet’s orbital trajectory, so that the Earth crosses this field of debris every year in mid-August.
When this happens, the dust trail testified to the comet’s passage flows into our atmosphere at a speed of about 161,000 kilometers per hour, causing the meteors and producing the bright streaks through the sky that we affectionately call shooting stars.
Meteors will appear to radiate in the constellation of Perseus, the mythical hero, who will rise after midnight in the northeastern sky.
Despite their Greek denomination, the oldest known story of the Perseids meteor shower appears in ancient Chinese texts, which mention impressive visions of more than a hundred meteors per hour in 36 BCE. Observations have continued over the centuries in many other cultures.
In medieval Europe, devout Catholics described the phenomenon as “tears of St. Lawrence”, because the celestial spectacle coincided with the birthday of the martyr’s death. Astronomers did not recognize the link between the annual cosmic event and comets until the late 1800s.
PHOTO SOUVENTION
If you want to remember this year’s show, try taking a picture. All you need is a tripod-mounted digital SLR camera that can take long exposures of 15 seconds or more.
Use a wide lens to capture as much of the sky as possible and adjust your device to ISO 400 to capture less bright shooting stars. You can also set a timer remotely to remove any shaking from the camera.
Keep in mind that taking a picture of meteors requires patience (and a little luck). It may take several minutes before a single meteor runs through your frame, so keep taking pictures as long as possible.
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