The night skies will light up over the next couple of weeks as the Perseid meteor showers begin to rain down starting this weekend.
The Perseid meteor showers get their name from Perseus, the constellation from which they came, and they will be speeding fast hitting at some points around 134,000 miles per hour.
The meteors are essentially broken pieces from a comet named Swift-Tuttle, that circles the sun every 133 years, and as it gets closer and closer to the star the core of the comet begins to melt creating a tail and leaving bits behind that will eventually become meteors.
The peak night for viewing will be on Sunday night heading into Monday morning around 1 am, and it will be possible to see up to 70 meteors an hour shooting across the blackened sky.
According to astronomers, there’s no perfect direction to find the meteor showers, but they do advise not to look directly towards the Perseus constellation because the light show won’t be coming from that area.
Instead, look “about one-third of the sky down and away from the constellation to spot meteors streaking across the sky” according to Astronomy magazines’s Michael Bakich when speaking to USA Today.
Can’t make it out of the city or get to a clear spot to watch the meteor showers? Don’t worry Space.com has you covered with live video streaming all weekend showcasing the amazing sky event.
