Watch the skies! The peak of the Perseid meteor shower takes place overnight tonight! The bright quarter Moon will limit the number of shooting stars you'll see but you can still expect around 15-20 per hour depending on where you're at. The meteors are debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle burning up in Earth's atmosphere at speeds of 130,000 miles per hour. It can take more than 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness so be patient and enjoy the view. From NASA:
Make plans to stay up late the night of Aug. 11 or wake up early the morning of Aug. 12. The Perseids are best seen between about 2 a.m. your local time and dawn. The Moon rises at around midnight, so its brightness will affect the peak viewing window. However, even though the Moon's phase and presence will keep the frequency of visible meteors lower, there is still nearly one meteor every two minutes during the peak![…]
If it's not cloudy, pick an observing spot away from bright lights, lay on your back, and look up! You don't need any special equipment to view the Perseids – just your eyes. (Note that telescopes or binoculars are not recommended because of their small fields of view.) Meteors can generally be seen all over the sky so don't worry about looking in any particular direction.
image: "An outburst of Perseid meteors lights up the sky in August 2009 in this time-lapse image." (NASA/JPL)
