There is little left to enjoy the most anticipated meteor shower of the year: the Perseids, also called ‘ Tears of San Lorenzo’ due to the proximity of the event with the festival of San Lorenzo that is celebrated on August 10. What will the Meteor Shower be like this year? As we will remember, if we are regulars of this astronomical spectacle, the usual forecasts contemplate about 100 meteors per hour, but this year the moon will partially block the Perseids , since it will not yet have entered the last quarter phase and the full moon is marked. for August 6; that is, for the key night of the Perseids, the moon will be at 72%.
Regardless, the Perseids are the astronomical event of the summer. And it is that the Perseids are so bright and numerous that NASA guarantees a good show . Although its period will take place from July 13 to August 26, the peak of the number of meteors per hour is expected for the nights of August 11 to 12 and from August 12 to 13, especially from 6:00 p.m. As always, the night before and the night after will also be good times to try your luck and ‘hunt’ some of these spectacular meteors.
The Perseid meteors come from Comet Swift Tuttle (discovered in 1862), which completes a journey through the inner solar system every 133 years, leaving a trail of dust and sand. These particles will collide with our atmosphere increasing its temperature up to 5,000 degrees and they will have a speed when crossing the sky of 60 kilometers per hour. Its radiant is the constellation Perseus.
The fragments can vary from the size of a grain of sand to that of a marble and the larger ones can leave a trail in the sky for a couple of seconds.
Due to its great decline (+ 58º) this meteor shower cannot be observed in southern regions, since Ecuador reaches only 32º in height.
As is usual in these astronomical events , no special instruments are required to contemplate the meteor shower. The only recommendations are to get as far away from the city as possible, away from light pollution and find a quiet and dark place where we can place our mat, hammock or blanket to lie down and spend a fabulous night comfortably contemplating the Perseids.
The European project Stars4all, in collaboration with the Sky-live.tv portal, will broadcast the astronomical phenomenon live from the El Roque de Los Muchachos and Mount Teide observatories.
We will not have another shower of stars again until October , the month of the Orionids thanks to the well-known comet 1P / Halley that orbits the Sun approximately every 76 years. In case you’re interested, the next observation of Halley’s Comet won’t take place until 2061.
