The Perseids

 

 

Discovered in 1862, 109P/Swift-Tuttle is a big comet with a 26 km diameter, a period of 133 years, last seen around 1992.

When a comet gets reasonably close the the Sun (like within Mars or the Earth orbit), the solar wind rips out of it all sorts of debris, mainly ice crystals and dust. This is what the comet’s tail, aka its coma, is made of. If and when the Earth gets close to where the comet’s tail has been, some of these bits and pieces get into the upper atmosphere at high speed, get vaporised and voilà, you get a meteor shower.

There is one going on right now, courtesy of Swift-Tuttle. If you are a reasonably motivated early bird, you can have a look at it. It is called the Perseids meteor shower. In theory it peaks between August 9 and 13 but in my humble opinion it will be pretty low on the horizon by then. So you may as well have a go, say, from Saturday 31 and the following few days, between 4 and 5:30 am. Pick a spot away from city lights and with a good view of the Northern horizon. All the action will be there, centred at about 7 degrees above the horizon. Just allow some time for your eyes to get used to the dark.

You can find all the details on timeanddate.com. Click on Sun&Noon, Meteor Showers and Perseids. Chose Lismore as your location and you can see a cool video of all this.

References:

Timeanddate website:

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/perseid.html

7News

https://7news.com.au/technology/space/perseid-meteor-shower-2021-how-to-watch-in-australia-and-best-times-to-see-space-event-c-3411497

Swift-Tuttle:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/109p-swift-tuttle/in-depth/