on a typical dark clear night away from
bright lights observers can usually
glimpse four to six shooting stars per
hour
now despite their name these aren't
stars at all but rather tiny particles
of solar system debris rains of dust or
tiny pea sized bits of matter from the
formation of the planets earth sweeps up
this debris and its orbit about the Sun
all the time collecting about a hundred
tons of this material every day passing
through denser and denser layers of our
atmosphere
these particles heat up reaching
thousands of degrees Fahrenheit and
incinerating high above the ground
this causes the brief streak of light
known as a shooting star or more
properly a meteor when Earth passes near
or through the trail of dust particles
that were liberated by a passing comet
we may see a meteor shower with
thousands of comets known and new ones
being discovered all the time there are
a lot of dust trails looping through the
solar system our earth doesn't encounter
all of them but at specific times of the
year it plows through a dust trail and
observers on the ground might see dozens
of meteors per hour in the night sky to
see a meteor shower first look up the
peak dates of the major showers and hope
for clear skies good displays to keep
track of are the quadrant heads in
January the Perseids in August and the
Geminids in December
although these showers are named after
particular constellations that doesn't
mean to look only toward those
constellations the names simply indicate
where the showers radiance is located or
at the point from which the meteor
trails seem to emanate the meteors
themselves can appear anywhere in the
sky because of this your viewing site
should provide a view of as much of the
sky as possible ideally on a high hill
with no tall trees or buildings nearby
to block any part of your view this will
allow you to see as much of the sky as
you can and don't use binoculars or a
telescope which will restrict your field
of
also make sure you're away from or at
least shielded from bright lights which
will wash faint meteors from view now
note that even the best showers can be
washed from view by moonlight especially
during the period about a week before to
a week after full moon while there isn't
much we can do about the moon's phase we
can time our observations for either
before moonrise or after moon set when
the moon isn't in the sky
generally speaking the recommended time
to look for a meteor shower is after
midnight and before morning Twilight
that's when Earth's rotation has carried
us around
so that we're looking in the direction
of the dust stream sort of like driving
on the highway and seeing more bug
splats on the front window of your car
then on the back window
since many meteors can be faint make
sure that your eyes are well adapted to
the dark this usually takes about 20
minutes away from bright lights and
don't spoil your night vision by pulling
out your cell phone and tweeting how
many meteors you see then you'll have to
wait another 20 minutes for your eyes to
adjust to the dark again your best tool
will be patience watching a meteor
shower doesn't mean looking for five
minutes
seeing one then going back inside to
warm up to really appreciate a shower
plan on spending a few hours observing
make yourself comfortable bring a lawn
chair or a blanket to lie on while you
wait see if you can make out some
constellations look for colors in the
Stars watch for satellites sooner or
later perhaps when you least expect it
you'll see a brief streak of light flash
overhead as a particle of cosmic dust
blazes across the night sky good luck
and happy sky watching
you