Updated for 2024! The Perseid meteor shower is one of the best meteor showers we get to see every summer, with up to 100 meteors per hour. The Moon will not be a big factor this year since it will be setting around midnight. So if we have clear skies, you should be able to see some space dust streaking through our atmosphere. The peak this year is early Monday morning, August 12, 2024, but meteors may be seen any time between July 17 and August 24.
To view the shower, it is best to go out in the early morning, between midnight and sunrise. Find a nice dark area where you can get an open view of the whole sky. Then just lay back and look up! Binoculars or a telescope won't help you here, so just use your eyes. After midnight, the constellation Perseus will be high in the Northeast. While the shower is associated with the constellation Perseus, they may appear anywhere in the sky, so you don't necessarily need to know where Perseus is to see them.
The Perseids are debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle, which was last seen in 1992, and will return in 2126. Each time it comes close to the Sun it expels material that follows behind it in its orbit. When Earth passes through this trail, we get a meteor shower.
Science Snacks – Space Bites – All About Meteor Showers
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Note: This video references the Lyrid meteor shower, which occurs in April.