1:20 PM | Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend

Discussion

The summer’s most exciting display of meteor showers – the Perseids – has already begun as Earth has entered the stream of debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle, but it will reach its peak this weekend later Saturday night and early Sunday morning. The moon will rise around 1am and cause some distraction, but, all in all, this is a pretty good year for viewing the meteors as far as the moon is concerned as it will be in a waning crescent phase. The biggest factor for successful viewing conditions is always the cloud cover and there will be some clouds around, but there also can be some clear times as well. If skies permit, there could be up to one meteor each minute streaking across the sky. The Perseids get their name from Perseus, the constellation from which they seem to emanate, but they can appear anywhere in the sky although a focus on the northeastern sky is probably best in the direction of the Perseus constellation (inverted “Y” shape).