Diamond Geezer
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Our local daily the Western Morning News reports
A weekend of celestial fireworks is in store as Earth makes its annual rendezvous with Perseid meteors. At its peak this evening and tomorrow morning, the meteor shower may produce 80-100 shooting stars an hour, although this year there is a risk that the bright moon will wash out the fainter meteors.
Meteors can appear anywhere, but sky-watchers will get the best view by looking to the North East, where the sky will be darkest.
Claire Gilby, of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London, said: "Unlike many astronomical objects, meteors are visible to the naked eye and observers need no special equipment to view them.
"Weather permitting, the sensitivity and wide field of view of the human eye are perfect for watching the Perseids. So to see them, all you need to do is watch the night sky."
The forecast for the Westcountry is for some cloud but Brian Sheen, of the Roseland Observatory in Cornwall, said that he was living in hope of the weather clearing.
"When the weather is right, the meteor shower lights up the skies," he said. "It is at its most intense in the early hours between 1am and 2am when the Earth rotates into the comet's trail. It's like turning a car into a swarm of gnats."
The Perseids are tiny particles, ranging in size from a grain of sand to a pea, shed long ago by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Over the centuries, the particles have spread along the comet's 130-year orbit.
Every mid-August, the Earth's own path around the Sun takes it through the particle stream. The grains hit the atmosphere at 37 miles per second and burn up, streaking across the sky in flashes of white light.
A weekend of celestial fireworks is in store as Earth makes its annual rendezvous with Perseid meteors. At its peak this evening and tomorrow morning, the meteor shower may produce 80-100 shooting stars an hour, although this year there is a risk that the bright moon will wash out the fainter meteors.
Meteors can appear anywhere, but sky-watchers will get the best view by looking to the North East, where the sky will be darkest.
Claire Gilby, of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London, said: "Unlike many astronomical objects, meteors are visible to the naked eye and observers need no special equipment to view them.
"Weather permitting, the sensitivity and wide field of view of the human eye are perfect for watching the Perseids. So to see them, all you need to do is watch the night sky."
The forecast for the Westcountry is for some cloud but Brian Sheen, of the Roseland Observatory in Cornwall, said that he was living in hope of the weather clearing.
"When the weather is right, the meteor shower lights up the skies," he said. "It is at its most intense in the early hours between 1am and 2am when the Earth rotates into the comet's trail. It's like turning a car into a swarm of gnats."
The Perseids are tiny particles, ranging in size from a grain of sand to a pea, shed long ago by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Over the centuries, the particles have spread along the comet's 130-year orbit.
Every mid-August, the Earth's own path around the Sun takes it through the particle stream. The grains hit the atmosphere at 37 miles per second and burn up, streaking across the sky in flashes of white light.
