Mark your calendar: The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th and it should be a good show.
"The time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "There should be plenty of meteors--perhaps one or two every minute."
A Perseid meteor over Joshua Tree National Park in California, August 11, 2007. Credit: Joe Westerberg.
Serious meteor hunters will begin their watch early, on Monday evening, August 11th, around 9 pm (EST) when Perseus first rises in the northeast. This is the time to look for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.
"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the most beautiful of meteors," says Cooke. He cautions that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.
A warm summer night. Bright meteors skipping overhead. And the peak is yet to come. What could be better? [read more]
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