10 Amazing Things You Should Know About the Perseid Meteor Shower

A colorful, sputtering Perseid meteor was photographed last night by Terry Allshouse near Eustis, Florida, and posted on the Realtime Meteor Gallery. All that from something about the size of a pea! The most consistently reliable meteor shower—the Perseids—peaks tonight. Under clear, dark, unobstructed skies you might see 60 to 100 meteors an hour. And this year, nature is cooperating: The moon is a thin crescent that does not rise until dawn, meaning that the astronomical sky will remain wonderfully dark all night through. (Clouds are another matter; getting away from buildings, trees, and city lights is all up to you.) For tips on how to watch the Perseids, read through this helpful viewer’s guide prepared by our friends at Astronomy magazine. That will tell you what you need to know about how to watch. It’s a lot harder to find good information about what you are seeing. That’s why I’m here. 1. The best way to watch is to slow down. OK, I lied just now: This first item is about both the how and the why of the Perseids. Contrary to the fakery you may have seen in movies (or in the real, beautiful, but somewhat misleading time-lapse photos you may have seen circulating online), the Perseids do not create a blizzard of streaks through the sky. Remember: 60 meteors an hour means an average of just one per minute, and that includes many faint ones. If you are in a suburban location with moderate light pollution, you are more likely to see one meteor every two or three minutes—sometimes in bunches, sometimes with long dry spells. The solution is to embrace the slowness. Find a comfortable spot where you can sit or lie down and look up. Enjoy the stillness. Visit with the stars. Take in as much of the sky as you can. When each meteor streaks by, pay attention. How long did it last? How bright was it? Did it have any color? Did it leave a trail? There is a lot to see—and a lot of pleasure in simply not doing—once you settle into that frame of mind. 2. Perseid meteors are fast, but not deadly. One of the reason the Perseids are so bright is that they strike at a very high velocity, hitting Earth’s atmosphere at about 35 miles per second (roughly 60 kilometers per second). This shower also produces an unusual number of super-bright meteors, called fireballs. That may sound scary, but in reality we are talking about tiny objects. The ones responsible for fireballs might weigh as much as a walnut; the vast majority of the things you see are pea-size or smaller. Most meteors disintegrate at a height of 50-60 miles (100 kilometers or so), leaving nothing but extremely fine dust that wafts to the surface. You don’t have to worry about getting hit by a Perseid meteor…at least, not here on Earth.