Dear Friends,
Tonight and tomorrow morning are the best times to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower, which is expected to be quite good this year. Simple watching instructions: you need an unobstructed view of the sky, so that you can watch a large part of the sky with your peripheral vision and thereby “catch” the flashes of meteors, which typically last just a few seconds. A dark site out in the country helps, but you’ll see some meteors anywhere you have a clear sky and can see stars. Best times to view:
- second best time is tonight (Wed., Aug. 11): for the first couple hours after sunset.
- BEST time to view is before dawn tomorrow am (Thursday, Aug. 12): get up around 3 or 4 am, and just watch the sky for awhile…
For a great article about what makes the meteor shower, see NASA science news at this link.
Good luck!
Jeff