Enjoy
a summer evening of sky watching this weekend as the annual Perseid
meteor shower peaks Sunday night into Monday morning. Rates can get as high as 100 meteors
per hour, with many fireballs visible in the night sky. Early Sunday evening, a waxing crescent moon will interfere slightly with this
year's show, but it will have set by the time of the best viewing,
just before dawn, Monday morning.
Perseid
meteors come across the sky from all directions, a good time to lay back in your favorite lawn chair and look straight up into the dark sky.
It is important to be far away from artificial lights, if possible,
but not required. Your eyes can take up to 30 minutes to adjust to
the darkness, so allow plenty of time for your eyes to “dark-adapt.”
The
Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are
associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once
every 133 years. Each year in August, the Earth passes through a
cloud of the comet's debris. These bits of ice and dust -- most over
1,000 years old -- burn up in the Earth's atmosphere to create one of
the best meteor showers of the year.
If cloud cover blocks your view, listen to the Perseid meteors by clicking here.
If cloud cover blocks your view, listen to the Perseid meteors by clicking here.
Schedule
of Events
Saturday
/ 8:12 p.m. EDT – Sunset in Washington, D.C. area.
Saturday
/ 9:55 p.m. EDT – Moonset in Washington, D.C. area.
Saturday
/ 11:00 p.m. EDT - Join NASA in a live Web chat to watch the
Perseids. NASA astronomer Bill Cooke and Danielle Moser and Rhiannon
Blaauw from the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space
Flight Center will answer your questions.
Sunday
/ 8:11 p.m. EDT – Sunset in Washington, D.C. area.
Sunday
/ approximately 9:00 p.m. EDT - Live broadcast of the skies over
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. begins.
Sunday
/ 10:28 p.m. EDT – Moonset in Washington, D.C. area.
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