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A Perseid meteor flashing across the constellation Andromeda on August 12, 1997. By Rick Scott and Joe Orman, courtesy Sky & Telescope.com
One of the nice things about August stargazing is the Perseid meteor shower. It occurs when Earth's orbit takes our planet through the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteors are simply Grape Nuts cereal-sized nuggets of debris shed by the comet. The appear to be coming from the direction of the constellation Perseus. As they travel, they collide with our atmosphere and burn up on the way, leaving behind brilliant (but brief) trails of light as they go.
The folks at Sky and Telescope have put together a nice little video cartoon of meteors flashing from the radiant (the area of the sky where the meteors appear to come from) during the upcoming shower. Check it out here.
The meteor shower peaks on Sunday night (the 12th), with the numbers of meteors increasing after midnight into Monday morning. The good news is (weather permitting), the skies should be pretty dark, since the Moon won't be interfering with the view.
So, check it out. A nice August night, a clear sky, and some meteors. What's not to like?
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