Look, Up in the Sky: Perseid Meteor Shower Visible Now, Peaking in August

Southern California residents can get a better view from the mountains or deserts, where light pollution is less.

A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky above desert pine trees in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area in Nevada on Aug. 13, 2015. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The Perseid meteor shower will peak Aug. 11 and 12, but you may have to leave town to see it.

According to Ed Krupp, acting director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles since 1974, Los Angelenos may have to drive about an hour or so into the mountains or desert for the best view.

“If you are in an urban environment, the lights of our skies are just too bright. We’ve polluted the skies to the extent that we can’t even see our skies anymore,” Mr. Krupp told The Epoch Times.

The shower comes from fireball debris shed from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which passes near Earth’s orbit every 133 or so years, last entering the solar system in 1992, according to The Planetary Society—a member-funded nonprofit dedicated to “advance space science and exploration,” according to the organization’s website.

Viewers will also want to stay up late. With a half moon lighting up the sky during the two peak days, meteors will be more visible after the moon sets in the second half of the night and well into the morning, according to the website.

“The idea is that you would find yourself under a dark sky roughly from 10 o'clock at night until well into the morning hours, or as long as you can stand,” Mr. Krupp said.

He added that the Perseid meteor shower averages about 60 to 75 meteors per hour, or about one per minute, which is “sort of the charm of the Perseid shower.”

Southern California viewers could head over to the Mount Wilson Observatory, about 30 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, or go deep into the desert around Yucca Valley or Joshua Tree where light pollution is reduced, he said.

The yearly spectacle runs from July 14 to Sept. 1, according to timeanddate.com, a website offering an interactive map to find your best viewing spot.

At its peak, as many as 100 meteors per hour can be seen from the “best meteor shower of the year,” according to NASA. The Perseids are known for lighting up the night sky with long “wakes” of color and light left behind them. They are also known for their fireballs—which are usually visible longer than meteors—as large particles from the comet explode, creating light and color as they collide with our atmosphere, NASA said.

Since the shower is more visible at latitudes farther north, residents in Northern California should find it easier to locate, according to NASA.

The Swift-Tuttle comet was first discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, but it wasn’t until 1865 that Giovanni Schiaparelli realized the comet was the source of the Perseids.

Nearly twice the size of the object thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs, the comet is 16 miles long at its nucleus.