Stargazers are in for a treat this week as the annual Perseid meteor shower is set to dazzle the night sky.
The Perseid meteor shower will peak on Monday night into Tuesday morning, causing over 90 shooting stars per hour.
The shower is a result of Earth-orbiting through a debris field from the Swift-Tuttle Comet, a 26-kilometre wide mass made up for ice and rock that last rounded the sun in 1992.
The Perseid meteor shower has been going on for the last month but will hit its peak on August 12 to 13 when it enters the heaviest debris field. According to astronomer Gary Boyle, the show will be visible from all angles and at all hours of the night.
"It will peak throughout the entire night, it's not a specific time. Pretty well it starts at 10 p.m., right until sunrise," Boyle explained. "The incoming meteors vaporize in the upper atmosphere, north, south, east and west. So there's no one area to look at the sky."
The event will be visible to the naked eye, however, Boyle said the moon will be near peak brightness that night which may make it a little more difficult to see than it normally would be. Regardless, he said there will still be plenty of chances to catch the meteors in action.
"Some of these fireballs will be extremely bright. They'll just be long and very fast-moving, they move about 56 kilometres per second," he said.
Besides the meteor shower, Boyle is encouraging people to keep their eyes open for some other solar action that will be happening on Monday night.
"Just to the right of the moon will be the planet Saturn and up towards the upper right is Jupiter, an extremely bright Jupiter. So you're going to have two planets all night long," said Boyle.
Although there are dozens of smaller meteor showers per year, Boyle said this one stands out for the sheer volume of meteors that it produces.
"Just to see some of the colours it's just awe-inspiring. It's an image you'll never forget," he said. "You can always look at a meteor shower on video or still images but until you really witness that flash in the sky, it's not the same."
