Meteor shower expected to light up sky Monday night
Posted Aug 12, 2013 3:57 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The sky will be putting on quite a show on Monday night.
The annual perseid meteor shower peaked overnight and a few lucky stargazers took advantage with some clear breaks, but astronomers have said Monday night will be prime viewing too.
For the last 2,000 years, dozens of meteors streak across the sky each hour every August.
It looks like cosmic fireworks but the bright streaks you see are bits of interplanetary dust burning up as they collide with our atmosphere at more than 200,000 kilometers an hour.
“Perseids have a fair numbner of bright meteors and that makes it one of the best shows of the year,” NASA meteorite expert Bill Cooke said.
Your view is best after midnight until just before sunrise.
A waning crescent moon means less light in the sky to compete with the meteor display. Keep in mind that next year’s show will be dimmed by a full moon.
The perseids take their name from their apparent origin in the constellation perseus, the hero of an ancient Greek myth born from a shower of heavenly gold.
