The first time Bill Cooke saw a meteor shower, he was 11 years old in the woods of North Georgia, where he was eaten alive by mosquitoes. But when he looked up, the sight of colorful streaks from the Perseid meteor shower allowed him to forget about his itchy red bumps—if only for a moment.
Now Cooke, 66, is a metroid environment program manager at NASA in Huntsville, Ala., where he studies the skies for a living. And he said it’s just as easy for him to witness a meteor shower at its zenith in mid-August as it was 55 years ago — and for you too, if you follow a few simple rules.
The meteor shower is a train of debris that trails behind Comet Swift-Tuttle, a dirty snowball that completes its orbit around the Sun every 133 years. From mid-July to early September, the Earth’s orbit around the Sun crosses that of the comet. And these grain-sized fragments become “shooting stars” when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, burn up and create spectacular streaks of light.
Fascination with the Perseids dates back centuries. Scribes in medieval Europe called the meteor shower “Tears of St. Lawrence” because the streaks in the sky fell on the anniversary of St. Lawrence’s martyrdom. A more recent example comes from the late singer-songwriter John Denver, whose hit song “Rocky Mountain High” (“I Saw It Raining Fire in the Sky”) was based on a camping trip he took behind the Perseids.
Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory, said the Perseid’s appeal stems in part from the comet’s timelessness in contrast to the scale of human life. “It makes us think about the sky and the universe as a whole, and it gives us a much different sense of what’s important and how long things last,” he said.
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Here are the steps experts recommend you take to fully appreciate the celestial light show.
Look at the correct day and time. The Perseid frequency will increase from now until the peak of the meteor shower on the evenings of August 10th, 11th and 12th.
The light show lasts for hours and individuals should be prepared to stay up late. That’s because “you don’t want to look at the moon too much because it impairs your night vision,” said Tim Thompson, science director at the Mt. Wilson.
Fortunately, the moon sets around midnight in Southern California, removing the lunar pollution for night owls.
Find a dark vantage point with a clear view of the sky. The most important thing astronomers do to improve their night vision is to leave the light pollution of urban cities and go to remote locations that are not encumbered by trees or buildings that obstruct the view.
Cameron Hummels, a research scientist at Caltech and former resident astronomer at Grand Canyon National Park, suggested that Angelenos book nearby campsites in advance to view the Perseids. Joshua Tree is a popular choice, but there’s also the Mojave Desert, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and even trails and campgrounds as close as Angeles National Forest near Pasadena.
In the backcountry, Cooke said, individuals will be able to see a meteor crossing the sky about once a minute. But in the suburbs, that rate drops to less than five per hour, he said, because light pollution makes all but the brightest fireballs invisible.
The light show can last for hours, and Cooke recommended keeping your eyes on your phone if you want it to stay dark-adapted.
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Don’t focus on Perseus. The Perseids appear to radiate from the northern constellation Perseus – hence the name. People living in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see the Perseids no matter where they set up camp, barring inclement weather. But individuals living deep in the Southern Hemisphere will have a harder time seeing the meteor shower, Krupp said.
But you don’t have to actually find the specific Perseus star cluster to get the best view of the meteor shower—in fact, Cooke doesn’t recommend it. “Don’t try to look for Perseus radiant because of meteors [at that point] they have short routes and are visually bland.”
He said you’ll have a better view of the shower if you have an expansive view of the sky, since meteors can appear anywhere. “Then get on the cot or sleeping bag, lie on your back and look straight ahead.”
Leave the binoculars at home. Unlike other astronomical events, it’s actually better to catch the Perseids without the use of visual aids because the meteors are moving fast—133,200 mph to be exact. “A meteor can appear anywhere in the sky. Telescopes and binoculars, you.” [only] see a small part in the sky. So you don’t want to use them. You want to use your eyes,” Cooke said.
Of all the annual meteor showers, “the Perseids produce more bright meteors, more fireballs than any other shower” because of their speed and size, Cooke said. They also appear on balmy summer nights, unlike the Leonids and Geminids, which arrive in November and December.
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Use a better camera than your phone. If you’re looking to capture a shot of a meteor shower, something other than your iPhone is better for you, said Bob Stephens, an amateur astronomer and eclipse chaser who has captured meteor showers with his camera. for 50 years.
It’s better to have a DSLR or mirrorless so you can put on a wide-angle lens, Stephens said — “the wider, the better, because you’ll capture more of the sky in the lens.” Pushing the aperture or F-stop as low as possible allows the most light in and recommends setting the ISO as high as possible without adding grain to the image.
The shutter speed should be slow, but no more than 15 seconds to capture the trail of light moving across the sky, and you’ll need a tripod to prevent blur. Most modern digital cameras have a built-in ability to take photos every few seconds until the memory card is full.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.