2011 Perseid Meteor Shower

The legendary Perseid meteor shower – the northern hemisphere’s best summertime meteor shower – is expected to peak between midnight and dawn on Saturday, August 13. That night, however, the full moon will be shining brightly in the sky from dusk until dawn, obliterating all but the brightest Perseid meteors. Here’s how to minimize the moon and optimize the 2011 Perseid meteors.

1) Start watching for Perseid meteors now, and continue watching until after the shower’s peak on August 13. The Perseids actually begin in mid-July, and they gradually build to a peak.

2) Watch in the early hours before dawn on August 9 and 10. On the peak night of August 12/13, there won’t be any moon-free time for viewing. However, on August 9 and 10, the moon will set a few to several hours before sunrise, providing an hour or two of dark sky for watching the Perseid meteors. Meteors fly at a lower rate several days before the peak date, perhaps at 15 to 20 Perseids per hour, but a dark sky makes all the difference in the world for watching summertime’s classic shower.

3) Sprawl out in a moon shadow. The best viewing on any date is from about 2 am until dawn. As seen from mid-northern latitudes, the moon will be shining low in the south to southwest sky on the peak nights. That means the moon will be casting long shadows. Find a moon shadow somewhere that still provides a wide expanse of sky. Ensconced within a moon shadow and far from the glow of city lights, the night all of a sudden darkens while the meteors brighten.

Best view of Perseid meteors could be before dawn August 10. If blessed with clear skies on or near the predicted peak date, a moon shadow may be your ticket to this year’s production. This annual meteor shower is beloved by many for its rich and reliable display of meteors.

If you’re serious about trying to see a large number of Perseids, you should avoid city lights. A wide open area – a field or a lonely country road – can work well. If you’re watching between midnight and dawn, the meteors will appear in all parts of the sky.

The Perseids are an especially rich and dependable meteor shower. In the northern hemisphere, they are often the best meteor shower of the year. They shoot across the sky – often leaving persistent trains – and occasionally lighting up the sky with bright fireballs. The shower typically produces 50 or more meteors per hour on the mornings of their peak.

The Perseid meteors are named for the constellation Perseus the Hero. If you trace the paths of the meteors backwards, they seem to radiate from this constellation.

Meteors are also called shooting stars, but they have nothing to do with actual stars. They start out as bits of dust left behind in space by a comet. The Perseid meteor shower peaks annually at this time of year, as our planet Earth passes through the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle. For several weeks from late July to mid-August, debris left behind by this comet slams into Earth’s atmosphere. The fragments vaporize as they fall through our atmosphere, and the result is the Perseid meteor shower.