Experts say the meteor shower will peak on the afternoon of August 12 around midnight, making the early morning hours of August 13 the perfect time to watch the skies. “The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year in August and is caused by Earth passing through the debris trail left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle’s tail,” said Dr. Rachel Ward-Maxwell, researcher and developer of the Astronomy and of space sciences at the Ontario Science Centre. “Although the meteors will be visible all over the sky, they will all appear to come from the same point called the radiator located in the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky.” He added that the shower will occur “under less than ideal conditions this year” because they will coincide with a full moon that will make the sky very bright and meteors more difficult. “Hot summer nights make the Perseids one of the most popular meteor showers to watch, and you can usually spot 50 to 80 meteors per hour at most under dark skies,” he said. “Moonlight this year will make that hourly rate more unlikely.”
