BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Perseids 2015 - They're coming

The first Perseid meteors have already been spotted. Here's a Perseid fireball seen in Sonora, Mexico last week. The bright patch on the bottom left is the bright gibbous Moon.

The peak of the Perseid meteor show is expected predawn August 11, 12, 13 and 14, with the night of the 12-13 expected to be the best. If you're not a predawn person, have a look the night before - or really any night for the next several weeks. They are already appearing, and the numbers are increasing.

When August comes around, the best sky show of the year is also on its way. The Perseids are an annual meteor shower. What's it all about and how can you see it? Perseids - Meteor Shower

Next week the Perseids should peak at around 100 meteors per hour, though you'd probably need to be up in the early hours of the morning and have good dark skies. The Perseid shower produces more fireballs than the other annual showers, so it's worth a look, A fireball is a meteor that's at least as bright as Venus.

But you don't have to wait til next week. The Perseids have already been arriving and NASA's network of cameras has detected nearly eighty fireballs since July 27th.

Here is a diagram of their orbits.
"The green ellipses trace the orbits of Perseid meteoroids. They are a good match to the orbit of the parent comet, shown in purple."

Predicting the peak of a meteor shower is tricky, and it seems not everyone agrees on this. I got something today which suggests the night of August 11-12 will be the best. I think if you can get out to a good site either that night or August 12-13 that it should be good. An added benefit this year is that moonlight won't wash out even the faint meteors. The new Moon is on the 13th.

NASA all-sky cameras reported 32 fireballs last night. In this diagram of the inner Solar System, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point - Earth. The orbits are color-coded from red for the slowest ones to blue for the fastest.

This is good - just change the days to Tuesday and Wednesday!

NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. On Aug. 8, 2015, the network reported 65 fireballs.

The Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) is also scanning the skies above North America for echoes from disintegrating meteoroids. They're currently shows two active radiants in the night sky--one associated with the Perseid meteor shower (PER) which is overlapping with the Southern Delta Aquarids (SDA).

Last year, Google did an animated doodle for the Perseids. If you click on the link, it takes you to a page where you can watch the doodle, and it also tells you something about the designer. Worth a look.

Tonight's the big night. If you have a clear sky, be sure to go out and have a look. No binoculars or telescopes needed, just your eyes. And when your eyes adapt to the dark, you're in business.

A few hints:

• 1. Even though it's August, be sure to have something warm to wear.
  
• 2. A reclining lawn chair is good, or even a camping mattress on the ground - it'll give you a good view of the sky and your neck will appreciate it.
  
• 3. Insect repellent if you need it.
  
• 4. Take all the usual security precautions you would for being out in the dark.

Enjoy the view!

Here's an exquisite composite photo of the Perseids meteor shower taken during a previous display. The photographer is Wally Pacholka of astropics.com.

BTW I've just checked NASA's all-sky camera - the count for last night: 195 fireballs.

The Perseids peaked a few days ago, but they haven't disappeared. So it's still worth going outside to have a look if the sky is clear. NASA's network reported 163 fireballs on August 14, 82 of which were Perseids. There was also a scattering from lesser showers and 75 sporadics.

They can tell which ones came from a known meteor shower because these appear to be coming from a particular point in the sky, called the radiant. Sporadic meteors are those not associated with a meteor shower.