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Perseid Meteor Shower To Peak Overnight - NPR
Aug 11, 2020 1 min, 14 secs

If you're tired of binge-watching TV during the pandemic, Mother Nature has an alternative. All you have to do is go outside between about 2 a.m. Wednesday and dawn local time, lie on your back and look up at the sky. The meteors and fireballs of the Perseid meteor shower should be streaking..

NASA says it's "one of the best" meteor shows of the year. That's because of the sheer number of meteors — 50 to 100 meteors to catch per hour as well as their fireballs — larger, brighter explosions of light and color that last longer than an average meteor streak..

The popularity of the Perseids also has to do with the season. Summer temperatures make for pleasant viewing conditions: The American Meteor Society says there are stronger meteor showers, but those appear in the Northern Hemisphere during the colder parts of the year.).

The brightness of the moon, which rises around midnight, will reduce the number of visible meteors to 15 to 20 an hour, although that's still a meteor every 3 minutes or so.

This particular shower gets its name because the meteors appear to be coming from a point in the sky right by the constellation Perseus.

Rich in bright meteors and fireballs, the Perseids meteor shower is one of the best of the year and it peaks on Aug.

The American Meteor Society advises watching from an area as dark as possible and fixing your gaze about halfway up the sky, as more activity is visible at lower elevations

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