Between 7:30 pm and 10 pm tonight will be the perfect time to see over 200 shooting stars also known as the Perseids or Tears of Saint Lawrence. It's the kind of stuff movies are made of....A nice bottle of wine, your loved one snuggled up against you and the show taken care of courtesy of the universe.
The Perseids are actually a prolific meteor shower, a phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere several hundred kilometers above the earth, when tiny particles of dust from the Swift-Tuttle comet burn at high speed as they pass the sun.
The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the greatest activity between August 8 and 14, peaking about August 12, when the earth passes through the tail dust of the comet, causing the dust to enter at high speed in the earth's atmosphere, making the particles shimmer like stars for a second.
The meteors can be seen all across the sky, but because of the path of Swift-Tuttle's orbit, Perseids are primarily visible in the northern hemisphere.
This year, Perseids should be even easier to see, because there will be little light from the moon, which is on the wane and won't come out until about midnight.
Groups of amateur astronomers all over the country have organized activities to observe the phenomenon and scientists say the best way see the meteor shower is to find a dark place, away from city lights, with a good view of the sky.
Make a thousand wishes tonight because as we all very well know, when you wish upon a star........you know the rest!
