shooting stars

By Paola Gonzalez, Marketing Coordinator at the Fleet Science Center

The bright Perseids are perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year!

This is a complicated year for watching the Perseid meteor shower, because the evening sky has a roughly close-to-full Moon in it, making it more difficult to catch the faint “shooting stars.” So if you can wait until the Moon sets, you should have better viewing in the pre-dawn darkness. Spectators can expect to see around 10-15 meteors per hour or maybe slightly more on the peak on Monday and Tuesday, August 12-13, according to NASA.

by Jori Wuerth

It’s that time of the year again! Every year in April, the earth moves through the comet trail of C/1861 G1 Thatcher. This comet, sends dust and tiny bits of ice into the atmosphere, leaving a beautiful display of lights dancing across the sky.

The radiant for the Lyrids is near the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra. This year, the peak viewing hours are expected to take place on Tuesday, April 23, before dawn. The Lyrid meteor shower, which started on April 16, will continue to appear in the sky through Thursday, April 25.

The Lyrid meteor shower will dazzle the skies this weekend. This meteor shower—one of the oldest meteor showers known to man—occurs every April when the Earth crosses the orbital path of the Comet Thatcher. Tiny bits of ice and dust from this comet hit the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a streak of light across the sky—a meteor!

The Lyrids are known for uncommon surges that can sometimes bring the rate up to 100 per hour. Those rare outbursts are not easy to predict, but they’re one of the reasons the tantalizing Lyrids are worth checking out.

By Dr. Lisa Will, Resident Astronomer at the Fleet Science Center.

This Thursday and Friday, August 11 and 12, is one of the best annual meteor showers you and your family or friends can watch: the Perseids. And some experts are even predicting that there might be a meteor “outburst” this year—where the number of shooting stars increases beyond the usual rates.

Fleet console operator Mary Anderson shares her photo and story:

“The Perseids are coming!” That’s enough to get any devoted night sky photographer headed to dark skies. In the San Diego area, my favorite spot is Borrego Springs, which is the International Dark-Sky Association's second Dark-Sky Community. (Flagstaff, AZ, is the first.)