Although the supermoon is expected to wash out all but the brightest of this year’s Perseid meteor shower, astronomy experts say if you choose your spot well, you’ll still be able to enjoy it.
The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak on August 12 and 13 and will be the best viewing period.
Gary Boyle, an educator and author of The Wonders of Astronomy, says a comet that last passed through the solar system 30 years ago is causing the phenomenon.
“The meteor shower is caused by cometary debris — we’re digging through the dusty tail of comet Swift-Tuttle, which last orbited the sun and moon in 1992,” he said in an interview with CTV News on Thursday.
“Just like going through a rain storm or hitting a bug cloud in summer with your windshield, we’re just going through the thickest part of the cloud, which usually gives us about 90 meteors an hour – but it’s going to be a little different this year because of the moon .”
This year’s August moon is full, big and very bright – enough to make it look like the lights of the city are shining evenly across the countryside.
“That 90 an hour will drop to about 20 or 30 of the brighter ones,” Boyle said, adding that even without the full show, it’s still a good time to get outside.
There are three planets visible each night, Boyle says — Saturn, which is most visible at sunset, then two hours later Jupiter, and two hours after that, he says, Mars will be visible.
However, you probably won’t be able to see anything while you’re within city limits, he says.
“It’s best to get outdoors, away from city lights if you can, in the countryside to get that full 360-degree terrain.”
Boyle says that although the meteors do come from the northeast, they could be hurtling through the atmosphere at 60 km/s “in any and all directions.”
“Therefore, if there are different people looking in different directions, someone is bound to see something.”
More information about stargazing in southern Alberta can be found online.
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