HONG KONG: This summer’s Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak this week, starting Tuesday, and sky watchers in Metro Vancouver should see hundreds of shooting stars.
With clear skies, it could be a spectacular light show of as many as 100 meteors streaking across the sky every hour, according to Derek Kief, astronomer at the HR MacMillan Centre.
“It is annual, but it should be really cool this year because there will be a new moon (and maximum darkness) on the 14th (of August),” says Kief. “Last year, there was a full moon and it was too bright. You’ll see a lot more this year.”
The peak of the meteor shower will continue through Wednesday and Thursday nights next week.
Kief says the meteors will be bright enough to see with the naked eye. “You can’t track them with a telescope because they are too fast.”
He advises heading outside “to a dark space.” He’s planning to gaze from a park in Kitsilano, but “you could even get outside of the city” to avoid the distraction of bright lights.
Meteor showers are visible as the Earth moves through a trail of ice and rock particles left behind by a comet or asteroid.
The Perseid is one of the most anticipated of the year for the sheer number of meteors that can be seen. It comes from the tail of the comet named Swift-Turtle, which last came near Earth in 1992.
It is usually seen across the Northern Hemisphere until the end of the summer. This year it continues until around August 24.
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