2.jpg){kind=small}
Fleeting blazes of fire and light will streak and fade through the sky this week, at the height of what astronomers predict will be a spectacular meteor shower visible to skygazers in the US.
The meteor shower will peak on the nights, as the Earth swings through the densest debris left behind by a distant comet’s trail. On the east coast, the greatest cascade of fiery, disintegrating debris will fall at about 4am (1am Pacific time).
Conditions are especially good this year for the annual meteor shower, astronomers say, since the sky will be free from that bane of stargazing: moonlight. Unlike last year, when a bright “supermoon” hid much of the shower with its glare, the height of the shower coincides with a new moon and dark skies.
“The moon will be nearly new, setting the stage for a great display,” Nasa’s Meteoroid Environment Office personnel said in a statement. The authors of the agency’s yearly Asteroid Watch agreed: “If you see one meteor shower this year, make it this one.
“These will feature fast and bright meteors that frequently leave trains, and there will be no moonlight to upstage the shower.”
The shower should be visible from anywhere in the US, but for the best views astronomers strongly recommend watching far from cities.
“Try to find a campground or someplace that’ll allow you to be there overnight,” operations manager for the American Meteor Society, said.
Light pollution can reduce star visibility by a factor of 10, depending on the location, while under the clear, dark sides of the countryside as many as 80 to 100 meteors may be visible per hour.
“Parks and beaches would be great but they’ll usually close their gates at dusk,” he warned, saying the most important tips were simply to plan ahead and bring supplies to get comfortable.
“You could always find a nice road that’s not traveled much but you’ll want to have permission. People can get very weird at night.”
Staying up late will likely yield the most spectacular show, comparing the Earth to a car driving into a swarm of bugs – a metaphor complicated slightly by the Earth’s constant spin.
“The Earth is driving into the front of this debris, so the intensity is going to be more when the place you’re living moves to face this cloud.”
Meteor showers fall away from the constellation from which their named – called their “radiant” – in this case will appear in the north-east to northern hemisphere viewers. But meteors will be visible all around the sky’s dome also.
“You could be looking west, see a meteor and draw a line in the sky back.”
Even early in the night viewers could catch an “earthgrazer”, a long, “slow, colorful meteor traveling horizontally across the evening sky”.
Weather forecasts predict clouds and storms in New England and the south-east US, but much of the mid-Atlantic, central US, Texas and California should have relatively clear skies.
Nasa discourages using telescopes or binoculars, which are better for viewing a specific celestial body than the unpredictable flares of a meteor shower. In fact, the only things the space agency recommends are a blanket and lawn chair to get comfortable.
“Relaxed eyes will quickly zone in on any movement up above, and you’ll be able to spot more meteors. Avoid looking at your cellphone or any other light. Both destroy night vision. If you have to look at something on Earth, use a red light.”
Every year the Earth passes through the tail of dust and debris trailing from the very eccentric orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Each time the comet passes through our solar system – about every 133 years – it warms in the sun’s glow and trails a ring of debris, some of which is thousands of years old. That debris vaporizes in bursts, streams and flutters as it enters the planet’s atmosphere, affording Earthlings an annual show of the meteor shower.
The comet last came closest to the sun in December 1992, and will not do so again until July 2126.