Perseid Meteor Shower

Activity of the in the sky caused by the greatest of the annual meteor showers the Perseid Meteor Shower occurs tonight, although this year it might be eclipsed by the brightness of the the full moon which is occurring around the same time. To help you find them the picture below, taken from the free program Stellarium, shows you where to find Perseus from where the meteors appear, if you are in the Rutland area.

The Perseid meteor shower is one of the brighter meteor showers of the year and it occurs every August, peaking around August 9-13. It made up of tiny space debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle which enter the earths atmosphere and burn up causing a bright flash across the sky. While the skies light up several time a year by other meteor showers, the Perseids are widely sought after by stargazers because at its peak you can view 60 to a 100 meteors in an hour from a dark place. This makes it one of the easiest to observe.

The worse place to see them will be in the cities and the urban areas where streetlights will make seeing the sky difficult. What you need to do is get out into the countryside where the skies don't suffer so much from the effects of the light pollution that we create. Then try and avoid the times when the moon is in the area of Perseus as this will make them impossible to see, as it is the brightness of the moon will obscure the faint meteors while the moon is in the night sky. Good luck in your search.