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Perseid Meteor Shower 2016

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Curt Renz

Well-Known Member
Mar 5, 2013
7,748
117,774
USA
The annual Perseid Meteor Shower is already underway. This year twice the usual number of meteors is expected due to the position of Jupiter. The Perseids are debris from the periodic comet 109P Swift-Tuttle.

The shower is expected to peak during the night of 2016 AUG 11-12. Its radiant is in the constellation Perseus. That is the direction toward which the meteor tails point, but the meteors are equally likely to appear anywhere along your horizon. The region near your zenith will likely present the fewest but brightest meteors.

The Perseids are usually the finest shower of the year. Normally at the peak up to sixty meteors per hour may be seen by some sharp eyed folks, but that could double this year. For observers north of the tropics, the meteors appear virtually all night, although most prolifically during the hours before dawn. The waxing gibbous Moon near the shower peak may present somewhat of a disturbance during the evening, but it will set during the middle of the night.

Descriptions of the shower or perhaps even lucky photos would be welcome additions to this thread. My calendar for the major meteor showers including Moon illumination data can be found at www.CurtRenz.com/asteroids.html