One of this year’s most prolific meteor showers is making a spectacle of itself this month. The Perseid meteor shower begins in mid-July and lasts until late August. If you don’t want to run out every night in hopes of seeing it, set aside the night of Aug. 12 and the early hours of Aug. 13. That’s when it peaks.
To be more specific, tune into the sky on Aug. 12 around 11 p.m., when the show really gets going. You can expect to see an average of up to 100 meteors per hour during the peak.
The Perseids are often called the offspring of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. We see the shower as Earth passes through the debris trail of ice and rocks left by the comet, which is the largest solar system object to pass close to our planet.Swift-Tuttle only swings by every 133 years, but the Perseid meteor shower occurs annually, as Earth moves through the trail of its orbit.
Those living in the Northern Hemisphere and down to the mid-southern latitudes will have the clearest view — and that includes Floridians.
For the darkest skies, head to one of Florida’s designated Dark Sky Parks, like Big Cypress National Preserve near Everglades City and Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park in Okeechobee. The Groveland in Lake County is also a designated Dark Sky community. To spot the shower, look northeast, toward the constellation Perseus.
Visit darksky.org