Viewing the 2016 Perseids

Meteor over US West Coast – August, 11th 2013 – © Scott Butner

The Perseid is the most gifted Meteor Shower of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. The Perseid offers a consistently high rate of meteors every year and it occurs in August when the temperatures are usually nice enough for a night under the stars!

Comet Dust

Earth encounters debris from Comet Swift–Tuttle every year at the same period.

Every year, the dust particles from the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet pass the Earth orbit and burn in our atmosphere (about 70 miles / 110km above us) from mid-July to the end of August. The meteors are in fact glowing columns of air resulting from the burn of these particles. When the dust and ice hits our atmosphere at around 37 miles / second (59km/s) they disintegrate high up in the atmosphere after making a brilliant flash of light. Most of these particles are the size of sand grains, while a few are as big as peas. They can streak across the sky in a flash, or persist for several seconds before vanishing. Meteor Showers peak, or reach maximum, at the same time each year.

Radiant

The radiant point for the Perseid meteor shower is in the constellation Perseus (North East, after midnight).

Meteor Showers are named for the constellation out of which they seem to come. Because all of the particles are moving in roughly the same direction, the meteors which strike our atmosphere all “point” back to the direction of the comet’s path. This point in the sky is called the Meteor Shower Radiant. The Perseids appear to come from a point next to the constellation of Perseus. Perseids can be seen anywhere in the sky, but the direction of motion, when traced back, will point to a point next to the Perseus constellation.