Aug. 12-13 best nights to watch Perseid meteor shower
Over the past few weeks, you have probably noticed a few meteors or “shoot stars” at night. You are witnessing one of the best meteor showers of the year.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is underway from July 14 to Aug. 14.
The best time to see the most meteors will be on the night of August 12 and into the morning hours of the 13th. This year the crescent moon sets around 10:30 p.m. local time leaving us with a dark sky. By contrast, next year’s Perseids takes place under a full moon.
If you have the chance to observe from dark skies absent of any stray lights, enjoy the band of our Milky Way Galaxy as this collective glow of billions of distant stars stretches from Sagittarius in the south to Cassiopeia in the northeast. Also, brilliant planets Jupiter and Saturn to Jupiter’s right will be out all night long. There are unmistakable and located to the left of Sagittarius.
The peak of the Perseids produces about 90 meteors per hour but occurs late afternoon in daylight on the 12th. Towards the end of the night when the constellation Perseus is high in the sky around 3 a.m. we should still see 50-60 meteors striking the atmosphere at 59 km/sec.
A higher number of bright fireballs may be seen on nights before the peak rather than nights after. The friction of comet debris causes the “flash” or “streak” which safely vaporize about 80 kilometres high in the atmosphere with no chance of meteorites hitting the ground.
The parent comet is named Swift-Tuttle, a 26-km wide mountain of ice, dust and gravel that last appeared in 1992 in its 133year orbit around the sun.
It will return in the year 2125, replenishing a fresh path of comet debris ejected from the comet’s surface as it gets close to the sun.
Here is where the solar radiation interacts with the comet, causing volatile material to vaporize and create the comet’s coma or cometary fog measuring close to 100,000 kilometres wide around the smaller nucleus.
A dust tail forms as debris is blown off the comet’s surface.
The comet dust lingers in space until Earth plows through the debris field in its yearly orbit around the sun.
This is why the Perseids and other known meteor showers occur at the same time each year. Known as “The Backyard Astronomer”,
Gary Boyle is an astronomy educator, guest speaker and monthly columnist for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Local meteor shower viewing
A viewing of the Perseid Meteor Shower is planned Thursday, Aug. 12 at Kopje Regional Park along Carrs Landing Road in Lake Country.
From 8 to 11 p.m., bring a headlamp, blanket or reclining lawn chair and stake your free spot in the park’s large, grassy area. Then gaze at the heavens and enjoy whatever the Perseids have to offer.
The festivities will include two presentations by star expert Denise Swick from Banff National Park. With 30 years of experience, she’ll highlight what makes the Perseid meteor shower so special and unique.
Seating is limited for the presentations, so register now at rdco.com/parksevents to reserve your seats at 8 or 8:30 p.m.
Members of the Lake Country Art Gallery will be on hand to connect art with the night sky. A birding expert will speak about species that use the stars to navigate.