The Perseids, also known as tears of San Lorenzo, they are a frequent phenomenon of meteor shower which normally takes place in the months of July and August. This year, the rain will peak on the night of August 12-13, what it provides to the observers of the sky A potentially impressive gift.
The Meteors are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, and under ideal conditions cloudless Observers could see up to 50 per hour, As announced by the Royal Astronomical Society.
Meteorites are the result of small particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, normally around 60 kilometers (km) per second. The pieces of rubble are heated due to the friction with air and are usually destroyed in less than a second at altitudes above 80 km. The superheated air around the meteorite Shines briefly and is visible from the ground as a ray of light known as “shooting star“.
Throughout the year, up to six random sporadic meteors are visible every hour. During a shower, Earth passes through a cloud of debris left behind by comets, and many more meteors are seen entering the atmosphere.
The Perseids are associated with comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle, which last passed close to Earth in 1992. The meteor shower is named after the point in the sky where they appear to originate, the so-called “radiant,” located in the constellation Perseus.
The earliest record of Perseid activity is from 36 AD. C., from the Chinese historical annals where a peak of meteors is cited on those dates. But it was not until 1835 when the Belgian astronomer Adolphe Quetelet shows that a meteor shower occurs, cyclically in August, with its radiant in Perseus.
This year, the peak should be from the afternoon of August 12 to the morning of the 13th. Observers on the west coast of North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean are particularly well placed to admire the phenomenon. The moon will be a thin crescent rising shortly before twilight begins, so its light won’t interfere, and there’s a real advantage to being somewhere dark sky away from the lights of towns and cities.
At night, the radiant is lower in the sky, so fewer meteors are seen. The ones that do appear are “ground shearers,” where incoming debris particles simply touch the top of Earth’s atmosphere and can leave long glowing trails. Later in the evening, the numbers increase as the radiant rises higher in the sky, with the best view likely before 03:00 BST (British Summer Time), when the sky will begin to clear before dawn.
Unlike many astronomical events, meteor showers are easy to observe and no special equipment is needed. According to recommendations issued by the Royal Astronomical Society, it is best seen with the naked eye. If clouds make viewing impossible on peak night, rain will continue on subsequent nights with probably reduced activity. There remains the possibility of some later peaks when the Earth intersects with filaments of debris.
