{"id":12974,"date":"2016-08-02T11:09:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T15:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12974"},"modified":"2016-08-02T11:09:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T15:09:05","slug":"perseid-meteor-shower-peak-approaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12974","title":{"rendered":"Perseid meteor shower peak approaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual Perseid meteor showers<\/a> are underway. Here is a guide for observing the shooting stars:\u00a0Viewing the 2016 Perseids –\u00a0American Meteor Society<\/a><\/p>\n

The Perseids are active from July 13th through August 26th. Maximum activity is predicted to occur on the morning of August 12th,<\/strong> when rates in excess of 1 per minute<\/strong> may be seen from dark sky sites. On the morning of maximum the waxing gibbous moon will set between midnight and 0100 local daylight time as seen from mid-northern latitudes. This will free up the prime observing hours from interfering moonlight.<\/em><\/p>\n

A meteor\u00a0shower<\/a> happens when the\u00a0Earth’s orbit crosses\u00a0the trail of dust particles\u00a0left by a comet. The Perseids are produced by the trail of Comet Swift-Tuttle<\/a> as seen in this image:<\/p>\n

\"comet-path[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although the dust particles are tiny, they are going so fast relative to the earth they can still produce a bright meteor when crashing through the atoms in the upper atmosphere.<\/p>\n

More at<\/p>\n