Fans of astronomical fireworks should put stars on their calendars for the night of Aug. 11-12, when one of best annual meteor showers should be better than usual.

The event is the Perseid meteor shower, which is almost always impressive. This time, says Patrick Wiggins, NASA solar system ambassador to Utah, they could show up vividly because no moon will be in the sky to spoil the view.

The moon is so bright that its light can overwhelm dim but spectacular astronomical views, like meteors streaking across the sky. But this month, the new moon — when the moon is not visible because it's between the earth and the sun — falls on Aug. 15.

Joe Rao, in a Sky & Telescope magazine article, noted that meteor showers are somewhat unpredictable so it's anyone's guess how the shower will perform this year. But, Rao added, "it will probably be better than normal, and there's a chance it could be spectacular." The article is posted on the Internet at skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_1289_1.asp.

The height of the meteor bombardment should be close to dawn on Thursday, Aug. 12, when only a sliver of the moon will be visible. According to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., in Utah that slice of Luna won't rise until about 3 a.m.

Even though moonrise is a couple of hours before the predicted meteor shower's peak, the number of meteors before 3 a.m. still could be amazing. Even after the moon rises, it will be such a narrow sliver that it may not interfere too much with the view.

"Observers away from city lights may be able to see one or two meteors every minute," Wiggins said.

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Don't bother with telescopes or binoculars to view the meteor shower, Wiggins advises. Just relax on a lawn chair and look up.

The meteors, often dubbed "shooting stars" or "falling stars," really are nothing more dangerous than minute bits of rock left by a passing comet. They burn up before they can hit Earth, because of friction in the upper atmosphere, he said.

Wiggins said the Perseid meteor shower is debris left from comet Swift/Tuttle, which last swept past our planet in the early 1990s and will not return to our neighborhood in space until 2126.


E-mail: bau@desnews.com

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