The 705 arguably has the most beautiful skies in Ontario – and hopefully, they will be lit up this weekend!
The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak this weekend, sending bright trails of light streaking across the night sky. Because of the current phase of the moon – a waning crescent – conditions this year will be ideal for seeing lots of meteors. Last year, the moon was full during the peak.
“If you’ve got nice clear weather and a good dark sky, you go out just before dawn and you’ll see a Perseid per minute or so,” said NASA meteor scientist Bill Cooke. “That’s a pretty good show.”
This year’s shower is already active, but the main event will be this weekend when the shower reaches its peak from Saturday night into Sunday morning. Starting around 11 p.m. local time Saturday, a few meteors will start to show up — maybe one every 15 minutes, Cooke estimated. They’ll keep picking up the pace until before dawn on Sunday, when “you’ll see meteors appear all over the place,” he said.
The Perseids — one of the biggest meteor showers we can see — occur every year in the late summer. Meteor showers happen when the Earth moves through fields of debris floating around in space. The Perseids come from comet Swift-Tuttle, a big ball of ice and rock that sheds pieces of dusty debris as it orbits around the sun. When the Earth passes by, those bits get caught in our atmosphere and burn up, creating streaking lights. The Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus because the meteors’ paths appear to start out from this point in the sky.
The Perseids can appear anywhere in the sky. The key to getting the most out of your viewing experience is to get to as dark a location as possible. The darker the sky, the fainter meteors you’ll be able to see. Put away your cell phones, as the light will make it more difficult for your eyes to adapt to the dark. And just try to keep your eyes skyward.
