Meteor showers are some of summer’s best entertainment — celestial, spectacular, and free.
Three are coming in just the next few weeks. The talk is already about the Perseid meteor shower, expected to have twice as many shooting stars.
“Part of the excitement is to go out there, look up in the sky, and start to see where they’re coming from,” said Fabio Mezzalira , manager of the Sommers-Bausch Observatory at the University of Colorado Boulder. “It’s a beautiful night.”
The best way to see them is to get outside of town, away from city lights. Lie on your back, get comfortable, and wait. Meteor showers can come once per minute, or once per hour.
Meteor showers, named after the constellations from which they come, are best seen after midnight, into the wee hours and until dawn. Start by looking in the eastern skies, Mezzalira said.
The Delta Aquarids meteor shower will be first, beginning Friday. Aquarius constellation and seem to come from its center point, near the Delta Aquarii star, called the radiant.
Next comes the Alpha Capricornids, with a peak viewing time on the last day of July.
The best and brightest is the Perseid meteor shower, which has already started but reaches its peak in the early hours of Aug. 12.
The shower, coming from the constellation Perseus, this year is expected to double its rate of shooting stars to as many as 200 an hour. This meteor shower is one of the world’s most popular, and the show this year promises to be better than ever.
