Perseid Pictures: Meteors With Aurora, Seen From Space, More

Peak Viewing

Photograph by Siddhartha Saha, Your Shot

An exceptionally bright Perseid meteor appears to strike the peak of Mount Rainier, Washington, in 2010. The shooting stars appear to radiate, or shoot from, their namesake constellation, Perseus, which will rise above the local horizon around midnight in the northeastern sky. (See Perseid-viewing diagram.)

In dark, cloudless areas Saturday, the night's first 2012 Perseids should become visible around 10 p.m. local time Saturday, with rates increasing through the night, eventually reaching a rate of one or two shooting stars per minute before dawn.

Published August 10, 2012

Double Feature

Photograph by Michel Tournay, Your Shot

A Perseid meteor arcs over an aurora in Quebec, Canada, in a picture submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community in 2009.

Perseid meteoroids hit the atmosphere and produce streaks of light as they burn from the friction over Earth—and over the moon too.

Since 2005, when NASA began keeping track, more than 200 lunar meteors have been recorded using backyard telescopes, according to NASA astronomer Robert Suggs. (Take a Perseid meteor shower quiz.)

Published August 10, 2012

Aerial Show

Perseid meteors streak past stars—shown as arcing streaks in a long-exposure photo—as a over a Bedouin tent near Amman, Jordan, in 2004.

For anyone up to the challenge of capturing the fleeting lunar Perseid impacts this weekend, NASA's Suggs recommends at least an 8-inch (20-centimeter) telescope equipped with a digital video camera and recorder.

On average, amateur astronomers with such equipment can record one or two flashes, only a thirtieth of a second each—too brief for unaided vision.

But if you miss out this time, your next best opportunity to see lunar flashes will be during the annual Geminid meteor shower in mid-December, said Suggs, manager of NASA's Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

(See "Pictures: Brilliant Geminid Meteors Dazzle Sky-Watchers [2010].")

Published August 10, 2012

Seen From Space

Photograph by Ronald J. Garan, NASA/AP

NASA astronaut Ron Garan, aka Astro Ron, tweeted this 2011 image of a Perseid meteor while orbiting above China in the International Space Station. (Related: "Perseids Dazzle, But Don't Endanger, Astronauts.")

For earthbound observers, the best way to see the Perseids is with unaided eyes, lying on the ground or a reclining chair.

Published August 10, 2012

Star Observatory

Photograph courtesy Stéphane Guisard, ESO

A bright 2010 Perseid meteor zips over the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, located at La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile.

The space rocks and dust that become Perseids are debris cast off by comet Swift-Tuttle. Discovered by U.S. astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1862, Swift-Tuttle would not pass by Earth again until 1992.

With its roughly 130-year orbit, comet Swift-Tuttle is expected in Earthy skies again in 2125. (Get more Perseids facts.)

Published August 10, 2012

Heavenly Glow

Photograph by Babak Tafreshi, TWAN

A meteor—perhaps a late Perseid—grazes the sky above the Armenian monastery of Geghard in a September 2008 picture submitted to the astronomy-education project the World at Night (TWAN). 

In 2012 it may be a struggle to capture Perseids hitting the moon. The densest part of the meteor shower hit the far side of the moon, impossible to see from Earth.

"We will be doing lunar observations this weekend but don't expect to see many Perseids," said Robert Suggs, manager of NASA's Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. (See NASA's guide to observing lunar flashes.)

Published August 10, 2012

Iranian Night

Photograph by Babak Tafreshi, TWAN

A Perseid meteor streaks over Iran's Alborz mountain range in 2010.

No matter where you are for the 2012 Perseids, glare from the waning crescent moon may obscure some of the fainter meteors a bit when it rises between 1 and 2 a.m. local time. But the interference shouldn't be enough to discourage stargazers from looking skyward—preferably with unaided eyes—for one of the year's best sky shows.

(See pictures of our vanishing night in National Geographic magazine.)

Published August 10, 2012

More Perseid Meteor Shower Pictures

Photograph courtesy Ronald Garan, Jr., NASA

Published August 10, 2012