The Perseids Meteor Shower, active since July 17th, will be even stronger this August. When I began studying meteor showers and writing about them in this blog, I thought that meteor showers were events solely witnessed at night. I’ve since come to realize that these events are far more difficult to predict and are in fact more likely “morning events”, best seen before dawn and after midnight.
I’ve had a few questions on the site as I always do about the best time to view the Perseids this year. I always feel a little stressed over making promises about meteor showers because I don’t want anyone to miss the prime-time action. Since these events remain one of the most difficult astronomical occurrences to predict in science today, it is with guarded trepidation that I will state the best viewing times for this years Perseids Meteor Shower as follows:
The first “best” time to get out there and look will be between 12:01 AM and dawn on August 12th and the second even better time will be between August 12th 18:00 Universal Time and August 13th 07:00 Universal Time.
Perseids Meteor Shower Radiant
I find that the times leading up to the peak in the morning are always stronger. For some of you the peak times will occur when it is light outside, so my best advice is to look in the morning of August 12th, a few hours before dawn and then again in the evening of August 12th into the morning of August 13th. There are some good things going for viewing the Perseids Meteor Shower in the morning of August 12th. One in particular is that the Constellation Perseus (the radiant located in the northeast for most of us) will be at it’s highest in the sky just before dawn and the moon will be a small crescent shape. The best part about viewing in the morning of August 12th is that, if for some reason, you don’t see as many meteors as you would like, you’ll have a another chance later in the evening to have a second go round at viewing.
Believe it or not Perseids meteors are active and visible in the sky right now through August 24th. The meteor shower will be at it’s strongest between August 11th until August 13th, so these are the best times to view this shower. I’m hoping for a great display this year and I’m urging everyone to get out and view the Perseids in their glory! If you like this blog and you want to buy me a cup of coffee to keep me awake while watching meteors you can do so by using the “A Coffee for Meteor Mark” section on the site that is located on the right underneath the newsletter sign up box.
In the meantime, keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
Perseids Meteor Shower August 2011
