Will you catch the Perseid (Per-SEE-id) meteor shower this summer? The meteor shower dazzles watchers with streaks of light.

The event happens every year. It started in July and will continue until September. But its peak is August 11-13. It’s one of the brightest and most easily viewed showers of the year.

Don Pollacco is an astronomer in the United Kingdom. He says the Perseids produce “bright blue meteors—and lots of them.”  

Experts say the shower showcases at least 50 meteors per hour. 

So . . . what is a meteor shower?

Most meteor showers come from the debris of comets. The Perseids come from a comet called 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Rocks from space enter Earth’s atmosphere. The resistance from the air makes them very hot. This causes the air to glow around each rock. It briefly leaves a fiery tail behind—the end of a “shooting star.”

The space rocks might be as tiny as dust. Or they might be as big as boulders. The glowing air around them makes them visible in the night sky. The Perseids come from bigger rock particles than most other showers. That makes them extra easy to see. 

To see the Perseids, you’ll have to either stay up really late or get up really early. Meteor showers are usually most visible between midnight and predawn hours.

The best Perseids viewing spot will be: 

• under dark skies
• away from city lights
• on a cloudless night
• when the Moon wanes (appear to shrink) the smallest.

The next major meteor shower will be the Orionids. That shower peaks in mid-October.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. — Genesis 1:14