Look up tonight! How to watch the Perseid meteor shower from the UK as the breathtaking spectacle peaks this evening
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Skywatchers are in for a treat this weekend as one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year peaks.
The Perseids will light up the night sky around the world, with up to 100 shooting stars visible every hour.
The annual event takes place when Earth plows through debris left behind by the Swift-Tuttle Comet during its travels through the interior solar system.
Also known as the “Fiery Tears of Saint Lawrence,” the display will be visible both north and south of the equator, though those in mid-northern latitudes are treated to the best views and the most space rocks through the sky see rage.
It will peak on Saturday evening and into the early hours of Sunday, but the celestial sight should still be quite spectacular next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Astronomers say the Perseids, like all meteor showers, are best viewed with the naked eye in areas with clear skies and little light pollution and smog with an expansive view of the sky.
To look up! Skywatchers are in for a treat this weekend as one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year peaks. The Perseids will light up the night sky around the world
The Perseids (pictured), which peak in mid-August, are considered the best meteor shower of the year. The bits of space debris interacting with our atmosphere to create the popular Perseid meteor shower come from Swift-Tuttle
How can I view the Perseids?
Check the weather forecast before you set off.
The quality of the image we see during the height of a meteor shower is determined by two factors: the weather and the moon.
Last year the latter was tricky, but since our lunar satellite will be in its last quarter phase on August 8 and a new moon on August 16, the 2023 Perseids peak will have no interference from moonlight.
However, the weather can be an issue depending on where you live in the UK.
Forecasters say much of central and eastern England will have a relatively clear night on Saturday, making it excellent weather for meteor spotting.
But for those in Wales, Scotland, the South West and much of Northern England, you may have to wait for a break in the cloud to get the best glimpse.
Once you’ve identified a night and a location where the cloud cover isn’t too bad, you’ll want to go somewhere dark, away from stray light.
Find an area with a clear view of the horizon and away from trees and buildings.
Experts say binoculars and telescopes aren’t necessary because they limit the size of the sky visible to you.
Forecasters say much of central and eastern England will have a relatively clear night on Saturday, making it excellent weather for meteor spotting. But for those in Wales, Scotland, the South West and much of Northern England you may have to wait for a break in the cloud
Known as the “Fiery Tears of Saint Lawrence,” the celestial event occurs as Earth plows through galactic debris left behind by the passing of the Swift-Tuttle Comet
However, if you have a telescope and point it northeast toward the constellation of Perseus, shorter meteors will be visible that are easier to align with the radiant, while the longest trails will be visible at 90Β° to the radiant .
The best time to see something in the night sky is when the sky is darkest and when the target is at the highest position in the sky.
For meteor showers, this usually occurs between midnight and the early hours of the morning.
How many shooting stars per hour will there be?
The quality of a meteor shower’s show depends on a number of factors and can vary dramatically from year to year, according to NASA, with light pollution having a major impact.
Bill Cooke of the US space agency said the Perseids have a theoretical maximum of 100 per hour, but in reality many people will see much less.
“In the 1980s, meteor researchers were looking for a way to compare meteor shower speeds observed by different individuals and groups around the world,” he said.
The rate published each year, in this case 100 per hour, known as the Zenithal Hourly Rate, is based on what the perfect observer would see under a perfect sky looking straight ahead. That never happens, Cooke said.
Conditions in the area, such as light pollution levels, cloud cover, and the position of the storm’s radius, all play a role in the actual number visible per hour.
Which countries get the best view?
According to Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society, the event is best seen in the northern hemisphere.
“The radiant for the Perseids — the point in the sky where the meteors appear to be coming from — is in Perseus, and high in the northern hemisphere of the sky,” he said.
“It’s 58 degrees north of the celestial equator, which means it would be overhead from 58 degrees north latitude (the latitude of places like Ullapool in Scotland).
This also means that the radiant never rises for places south of 32 degrees south latitude, so the southernmost parts of Australia and much of Argentina and Chile.
βThe result is that the northern hemisphere has the best potential visibility because the radiant is higher in the sky and visible for longer, so in theory more meteors are visible.
“As you go further south, the number decreases, and south of latitude 32 degrees south, there is virtually nothing to see.”
The good news for American skywatchers is that astronomers say two of the best places to see the Perseids this year are along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the United States.
How fast do the meteors travel?
A typical Perseid meteoroid moves at 133,200 mph (214,365 km/h) when it hits Earth’s atmosphere.
At this point it becomes a meteor. If it hit the ground it would be called a meteorite, but almost none of the Perseid fragments do because they are the size of a grain of sand.
Most fragments are visible when they are about 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the Earth’s surface.
When will the next meteor shower be?
The next big meteor shower is the Draconids in October, although it tends to be a less active shower than the Perseids.
WHY DO METEORS MAKE A SOUND?
Meteors are fragments of space rock that enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up due to the friction created as they pass through it, appearing as bright streaks of light in the sky.
In addition to light, this friction also creates sound, with some meteors causing a “sonic boom” when they break the sound barrier, similar to a fast-moving airplane.
Because meteors can be over a hundred miles high and their sound waves travel much slower than the light they generate, the sonic boom is often not heard until many minutes after the flash is seen.
The bang will also only be loud enough to be heard from Earth if the meteor is particularly large, enters the stratosphere below an altitude of about 50 km and explodes as a bolide or fireball.
In addition to the bang, some stargazers claim to have heard hissing and buzzing sounds at the same time a meteor is seen.
This is because meteors also emit very low-frequency radio waves, which travel at the speed of light.
These are inaudible, but can cause physical objects on the Earth’s surface to vibrate, producing a sound that our ears can interpret as hissing.
Sometimes stargazers can hear a meteor as it creates a “sonic boom,” much like a fast-moving airplane does (stock image)