Daniela Berson
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Anyone hoping to watch shooting stars tonight can expect to see a lot of them – favorable conditions in the night sky mean that stargazers could see up to one meteor per minute.
The Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.
The best viewing time is around 4 a.m. on Thursday.
Dr. James Zimbleman, a geologist at the National Air and Space Museum, said that budding astronomers will benefit from darker skies if they can find a place to view the meteors without light pollution.
“The phase of the moon is very important and this particular year we’re within a day of new moon,” he said, “So there will be no moonlight to interfere with the meteor shower.”
Meteor showers occur when the Earth’s orbit passes by the debris of a comet.
In the case of the Perseids, the comet is Swift-Tuttle, which passes by Earth once every 150 years but leaves behind a meteor trail for centuries.
The debris enters Earth’s atmosphere, but burns up before reaching the planet’s surface, providing stargazers with a dazzling light show.
The best place to watch the Perseids is in a dark, open area away from man-made lights.
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