70 Shooting Stars per hour -- peak of Perseid Meteor Showers (Aug. 11 - 12, 2013)

from Detroit Free Press newspaper online article (Aug. 3, 2013): Summertime, and the shooting stars are easy. Just pack a lawn chair and save yourself a few hours long past bedtime for the watch party. Here comes the Perseid meteor shower, which promises about 70 shooting stars an hour this year and peaks on Aug. 11-12. Appearing every August, the meteors take their name from their apparent origin in the constellation Perseus, the hero of ancient Greek myth born from a shower of heavenly gold. “The Perseids are the good ones,” says meteorite expert Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Known for producing fireballs that might streak across a third of the sky, the Perseids owe their brilliance to the speed — nearly 134,000 mph — with which they smack into the upper atmosphere. “It’s also because of the size of the meteors,” Cooke says — dust grains about one-fifth of an inch across that burn nicely as they zip overhead. Those dust grains come courtesy of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which circles the sun once every 133 years and leaves behind a debris trail. (Comets are basically dirty snowballs that develop tails when they approach the sun and start to melt. Different ones are responsible for other regular meteor showers, such as April’s Lyrids brought by Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, and November’s Leonids brought by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle). You will have to stay up late to see the Perseids at their peak; the best viewing comes from midnight to dawn, particularly after the half-full moon sets at 1 a.m. on Aug. 12, says Astronomy magazine’s Michael Bakich. But they should appear nights in the week before and after the peak, as well. “Get out of the city and the lights to give yourself a chance to see them,” he says. The rule of thumb is that you should be able to see all the stars of the Big Dipper — seven stars if you are counting — to give yourself enough darkness to catch the shooting stars. And give your eyes an hour to adjust. “There will be a dozen ‘ooh’ moments in that hour,” Bakich says. “Ones when everyone will say, ‘Did you see that?’” Although the shooting stars seem to come from the constellation Perseus, don’t look there to see them, Bakich advises. Instead, look about one-third of the sky down and away from the constellation to spot meteors streaking across the sky. “That makes them easier to pick out,” he says. http://www.freep.com/article/20130803/FEATURES01/308030036/Perseid-meteor-shower