In the wee hours of the morning, our sky will light up with a celestial show. The Perseid meteor shower, widely considered the best meteor shower of the year, is predicted to reach its peak on Monday, Aug. 12 or Tuesday, Aug. 13.
Christened in honor of the meteors’ radiant constellation Perseus the Hero, the Perseid shower will produce as many as 100 meteors per hour at its peak. (It’s worth noting that they actually come from a comet called 109P/Swift-Tuttle, not the constellation.)
The pre-dawn hours of Monday and Tuesday are the best time to see the Perseids around here, but if getting up early isn’t your thing, some meteors will be visible as early as 10 p.m. And if you want to get an advanced viewing, PARI — one of only two Dark Sky Parks in NC — is hosting a guided experience on Friday, Aug. 9.
