Perseids Meteor Shower Tonight!

Do you want to hangout tonight? We'll I have a great idea! 

Image by rherring via Flickr

Why not observe the night sky and see the annual Perseids meteor shower?

Persieds is an annual meteor shower that starts by the middle of July and peaks in the middle of August. For this year, 2009, it is expected to peak between August 11 and August 12. According to recent counts, it can showers up to 60 shooting stars per hour or more. It's really a shower of fun to observe this wonderful celestial event.

Image via Wikipedia

Meteor showers occur when the earth passes an orbit of a comet. Comets leaves particles of rocks and ice on their orbit and when the earth passes them, a steady shower of meteor display occurs.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Perseids meteor shower can be observed all over the sky but more concentrated on the Northern part specifically on the contellation of Perseus. The comet named Swift-Tuttle is the one associated with it.

Another well known meteor shower and

 currently the holder of Guiness Book record is the Leonids that occurs on November and is caused by the comet Temple-Tuttle. In 1833, 1866 and 1867, it displays the most expectacular meteor showers of all time when it rained up to 100,000 meteors per hour!

Image via Wikipedia