Annual Perseid meteor shower quite a show

CALGARY — The sky is offering a free show to anyone who cares to head out of the city, and you don’t even need binoculars to observe the celestial phenomenon.

The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak Monday and debris from a comet that passed Earth more than a decade ago will be visible.

Experts say the optimum time to check out the show is after midnight — ideally in a rural or remote area away from city lights — when there could be as many as 100 meteors going by per hour. Usually at least one can be seen every minute.

Comet Swift-Tuttle, which is more than 20 kilometres wide, passed Earth in 1992. Now, the debris it left behind is entering our atmosphere.

Swift-Tuttle “basically replenished this path of dust,” said Jason Nishiyama, president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Calgary centre.

Perseid happens every year, making the shows one of the more accessible astronomical events.

It is not necessary to use binoculars or a telescope to view the meteors.

“It’s something that happens often, it’s easy to observe and you don’t need any equipment. You just find somewhere dark, and look up,” he said.

“Bring a lawn chair and a blanket, lay back and watch the show.”

The debris that makes Perseid is quite small — Nishiyama compared each to a grain of sand.

It is seen by the naked eye because it is burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a significant amount of easily seen light.

Perseid gets its name from the constellation Perseus.