Celestial fireworks expected as Earth flies through dust cloud

A SPECTACULAR display of celestial fireworks is promised this weekend as the Earth flies through a cloud of cometary dust.

The Perseid meteors, shed by comet Swift-Tuttle, stage their show every August and are among the brightest of all shooting stars.

This year, as many as two of the streaking flashes of light could be visible every minute given a good location away from built-up areas and clear skies.

The peak time for Perseid watching will be tomorrow night and before dawn on Sunday.

Robin Scagell, vice president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: “The Perseids can be very bright and often quite spectacular. Some meteor showers are slow, but we are moving into the Perseid stream so they are coming at us quite swiftly.

“I think under good conditions you might see one or two a minute, probably more towards Sunday morning rather than Saturday.

“You could see none at all for a few minutes and then two or three. You might be lucky or unlucky; that’s the way with meteors.”

The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 58 kilometres (36 miles) per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.

Seen from the Earth, the Perseids appear to originate from one place in the north-east known as the “radiant” which happens to be near the constellation Perseus.

A tip from Mr Scagell is not to look towards the radiant, but to direct your gaze in the opposite direction.