August's annual Perseids meteor shower is set to peak between Sunday and Monday, as approximately 70-100 meteors will pass an hour at one point.
"There will be a dozen 'ooh' moments in that hour," Astronomy magazine's Michael Bakich said according to USA Today. "Ones when everyone will say, 'Did you see that?'"
The meteors get their name from their origin in the constellation Perseus, a hero of ancient Greek mythology according to SPACE.com. The hero was born from a shower of heavenly gold according to legend.
The shower itself was created by the remains of the Comet Swift-Tuttle, discovered back in 1862. It takes 130 years for the shower to circle the sun according to SPACE.com
In August, Earth passes near the orbit of Swift-Tuttle and crosses the comet's debris trail according to SPACE.com.
Comet Swift-Tuttle made its last appearance in December, 1992.
In order to see the shower at its peak, the best viewing time takes place between midnight and dawn, specifically right after the half-moon sets at 1 a.m. on Aug. 12.
"Get out of the city and the lights to give yourself a chance to see them,"Bakich said according to USA Today. The rule of thumb is that you should be able to see all the stars of the Big Dipper, seven stars if you are counting, to give yourself enough darkness to catch the shooting stars. And give your eyes an hour to adjust.
Bakich advises those who want to see the shower to look one-third of the sky down and away from the constellation to see the meteors soaring through the sky. He claims this will make them easily to "pick out."
Operators have been doing what they can to protect our satellites from potential comet dust once the shower hits. The Perseid shower won't affect the Hubble Space Telescope according to NASA's Janet Anderson.
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