The Perseids meteor shower peaks Wednesday, Aug. 12, and early Thursday, Aug. 13, morning.
Bill Cooke, NASA’s meteoroid environment program manager shared some tips for getting the best view in Arizona.
The 16-mile wide Swift-Tuttle comet is one of the largest solar system objects to regularly pass Earth. It was first discovered orbiting the sun in 1862.
As the comet goes around the sun, it leaves behind a trail of smaller meteor particles, which are called the Perseids because they appear to radiate at the point in the sky near the Perseus constellation. Every summer, Earth’s orbit intersects with the comet’s orbit.
When those meteors in the comet’s tail slam into our atmosphere at high speeds, it creates a bunch of brilliant flashes in the night sky. The Perseids are active from July 17 through almost the end of August, but Aug. 12 and 13 are considered the peak of the shower, because it's when Earth passes through the densest part of the tail.
According to Cook, “the peak time to see the Perseids is around 4 o’clock in the morning. It’s not something you’re going to see after supper, so you’re going to have to get up to see the Perseids.”
He recommends waking up at about 2:30 a.m. and avoiding your phone, in order to give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness. He also says it’s best to get out of the city, where there are no streetlights to obstruct the viewing.
“In a Phoenix suburb, you may see at the peak around 4 a.m., two to three Perseids per hour because the sky is so bright in the city,” said Cooke.
“If you get to Fountain Hills, it’s got a darker sky — you’ll see about 25 Perseids per hour, there. And if you’re willing to make a two-hour trek to the southeast towards Tucson to Oracle State Park, which has some of Arizona’s darkest skies — you’ll see up to 52 Perseids per hour.”
Vannessa Gressieux supports public outreach and educational programs at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson. She shared some insight into how the current moon phase and weather conditions could also affect viewing of the shower.
She says Wednesday's rain chances and cloud coverage across Tucson and Phoenix could impact viewing more than other years, but that this could be balanced out by the current new moon phase.
In an emailed statement, she said that means, “there will be virtually no moonlight to wash out the meteors as they pass overhead, giving us much darker skies and better viewing conditions.”
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