(sorry, that's a first grade joke)...
Seriously, what do August showers bring? METEORS!!!!
The Perseid Meteor Shower, to be exact.
The comet Swift-Tuttle passed through our solar system in 1992 (as it did in 1863) leaving behind its trash; tiny grains of ice, dust, rock, and other debris. As the Earth makes its trip around the sun, we pass through this debris field with some spectacular results (The Perseid Meteor Shower). Although there are several meteor showers annually, like the Leonids, Lyrids, and Geminids, the Perseid Meteor Shower is the most reliable, and still very spectacular as they create 50 – 150 meteors an hour on average, and increasing at times as high as 400 – 1000 an hour. It can be a most spectacular display.
The exact time of maximum should be about 7 a.m. EDT on Aug. 12, according to Margaret Campbell-Brown and Peter Brown in the 2008 Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. If so, the timing is very good for meteor watchers observing before dawn in North America, especially in the western states. The waxing gibbous moon sets around 1:30 a.m. local daylight-saving time, leaving a dark sky for the next 3 hours.
I'm giving you a days' notice in hopes you can catch some extra sleep in preparation of staying up late Monday night. Right now the weather in our area isn't looking good for meteor watching. I'll keep you posted.
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