Oldest meteor shower known to earth set to fill night sky
By: Melissa Randall
@MRandallABC6
If you are looking to make a wish on a shooting star Wednesday night into early Thursday morning may be a dream come true! The annual Perseids meteor shower will be overhead.
“If you are outside looking at the sky you should see at least several dozen if not more per hour,” said David Targan, Dir. of Brown University’s Ladd Observatory in Providence.
“You'll see a very slim crescent moon in the eastern sky and so it will not effect observing meteors what so ever,” explained David Huestis of Skyscrapers, Inc., an amateur astronomers group based in North Scituate, Rhode Island.
The Perseids is actually pieces of comet Swift Tuttle hitting the earth's atmosphere.
“Those particles, as they hit our atmosphere… they burn up and create these streaks of light that we seen in the night sky,” explains Targan.
The best way to see the shower isn't by telescope. The experts say simply lie down and look up.
“With your eye you can cover a wide area of the sky. With binoculars or a telescope you're just focusing in on a very narrow area. The chances of you seeing a meteor are pretty slim that way,” explained Huestis.
To get the best view you'll need to be far from the glow of the city. The peak viewing time is between 3 and 4 am Thursday.
“You'll see a few ahead of time but you'll see more as the constellation Persius rises higher and higher in the north east sky,” said Huestis.
NASA will be broadcasting the Perseids from 10 pm until 2 am with experts explaining what's happening in the skies: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-to-host-perseid-meteor-shower-program
Information provided by AP
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