The Perseid meteor shower is set to light up the night sky over the coming weeks, offering a spectacular treat for skygazers. Known as one of the brightest, fastest and most active showers of the year, it occurs as Earth passes through debris left by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
Up to 150 meteors an hour, under a new-Moon sky — no telescope required.
Running from 17 July to 24 August, the display will peak overnight on 12-13 August. Coinciding with the new Moon, dark skies will create ideal viewing conditions wherever the weather cooperates. Meteor showers form when dust from a passing comet or asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere; the tiny particles, roughly the size of a grain of sand, vaporise and create visible streaks of light.
The Perseids are especially prized for being a very active shower, with up to one hundred and fifty meteors per hour possible at the peak, and for their bright "fireball" meteors. To spot them, observers should look toward the radiant, the point in the sky from which they appear to originate.
It is easiest to see meteors in the northern hemisphere between midnight and an hour before sunrise, though cloud cover is the deciding factor. Ideal conditions are dark, clear skies with a wide, unobstructed view, and no binoculars or telescope are needed. The further you are from light pollution, the better your chances, and you should allow your eyes up to fifteen minutes to adapt to the lower light.
High pressure to the west is expected to dominate the weather through the week ahead, bringing mostly dry and settled conditions that should help viewers across many regions. With a little patience and a dark horizon, the Perseids promise one of the most reliable and rewarding astronomical shows of the year.
For those planning ahead, the radiant sits in the constellation Perseus, which climbs the north-eastern sky after dusk — though experienced observers advise looking slightly away from it, where meteors leave longer trails. Photographers can capture the shower with a wide-angle lens, a tripod and exposures of ten to twenty seconds; the fireballs for which the Perseids are known are bright enough to register even over moderate light pollution.
The forecast of settled weather makes this year's peak unusually promising; a dark horizon on 12 August is the only ticket required.
The Perseids are astronomy's best recruitment tool precisely because they require no equipment — the barrier to entry is a dark sky, and that is the scarce resource. Light pollution grows a few percent a year globally, which quietly shrinks the population who can see events like this at all. A new-Moon peak is increasingly rare luck; use it.
