Sunday and Monday nights (August 11 and 12) we have our annual chance to bask in the Perseid meteor shower. If you’ve never gone out to see such a thing, the Perseid shower is a good, reliable phenomenon. If you go out and follow these tips and are patient, you should see multiple meteors quickly streak across the sky. Just make sure the sky conditions (cloud, fog) and weather are appropriate, and prepare for a lengthy dark outing. It’s best to go after midnight to see the most meteors.
Getting away from all lights, including passing traffic, and having a wide sky view will maximize your chances of seeing “shooting stars.” Reclining on the hood of a car or in lawn chairs with blankets or sleeping bags was our favorite method with the kids. When my husband and I were dating, we skipped the lawn chairs.
Get some good tips and background info from Andrew Fraknoi of Foothill College and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in his blog post about the Perseid meteor shower. You can see what the Perseid meteor show looked like for one viewer in the 2007 time-lapse video above.
