Peak hours are after midnight when the radiant of the shower rises higher into the sky and when the earth is turning into the meteor stream. A bright moon, which rises at midnight this August 12-13, considerably reduces the number of meteors seen since many meteors are dim. The moon is kind of like nature's light pollution. Nevertheless, the hours of dark before the moon rises should still be quite good.
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| The meteors appear to emanate from a single location in the sky which gives the shower its name. This location is called the "radiant". |
Perhaps the most complicating factor this year is Coronavirus restrictions limiting groups to 20 in number. Because of Mitzpe Ramon's dark skies and the star parties sponsored by the town there are usually thousands of people who come to Mitzpe Ramon for the peak night. That obviously doesn't work well this year. All guided activities require a reservation and groups are being kept small. If you come without a reservation for an activity you are on your own for finding a dark location and observing. Many guides in Mitzpe will be doing their own scaled down tours throughout the week. You can find almost all on TripAdvisor. On many years Mitzpe Ramon has turned off all the city lights to make the area dark everywhere. It is not doing so this year.
If you come on your own the Machtesh will be open for star gazing and meteor watching at this location as well as all the campgrounds in the Crater. https://www.parks.org.il/reserve-park/ramon/
The Machtesh is enormous, some 29 miles x 6 miles and can accommodate thousands of people.
This is your best bet for self-guided meteor gazing.
While my tour on the night of August 12 is booked, other nights around that date are still available. You can book one here:
The Israel Space Association is offering free activities in Mitzpe August 8-13. Reservations are required. All I know about them is at this link: https://www.space.gov.il/activities-and-events/132025
You can obviously go to any dark sky location in Israel to view the meteor shower. I am not familiar with them but the Judean Desert, the Galil, and the Golan come to mind. Har Hatayasim nature reserve close to Jerusalem is a good candidate in the Mercaz. The devil is in the details which I don't know from lack of personal experience.
The nights around the peak of the shower are also excellent for observing, you just don't see as many meteors.
HOW TO VIEW THE PERSEIDS METEOR SHOWER
You don't have to come to Mitzpe Ramon to view the meteor shower. All you need is a dark sky with an open horizon. Just sit back or lie on the ground and look up. Watch the skies with your naked eye. No optical equipment required. While you can watch in any direction, looking east if you can't look straight up, is usually best, as that is the direction the radiant of the shower rises in the constellation Perseus, which gives the Perseids its name.
BOTTOM LINE:
The nights of August 10-August 15 are best for viewing this year's Perseids Meteor Shower. The peak night is August 12-13. A bright, waning, last quarter moon will interfere with seeing the dimmer members of the shower after midnight, which will considerably reduce the hourly rate. The nights of August 10,11, 13, 14 and 15 may be a good compromise between intensity and darkness for viewers of the shower. The moon rises about 45 minutes later each night after August 12. Check the forecast for haze on the nights of August 11-15. Haze combined with a bright moon do not make for good meteor viewing.
You don't have to come to Mitzpe Ramon to view the meteor shower. All you need is a dark sky with an open horizon. Just sit back or lie on the ground and look up. Watch the skies with your naked eye. No optical equipment required. While you can watch in any direction, looking east if you can't look straight up, is usually best, as that is the direction the radiant of the shower rises in the constellation Perseus, which gives the Perseids its name.
BOTTOM LINE:
The nights of August 10-August 15 are best for viewing this year's Perseids Meteor Shower. The peak night is August 12-13. A bright, waning, last quarter moon will interfere with seeing the dimmer members of the shower after midnight, which will considerably reduce the hourly rate. The nights of August 10,11, 13, 14 and 15 may be a good compromise between intensity and darkness for viewers of the shower. The moon rises about 45 minutes later each night after August 12. Check the forecast for haze on the nights of August 11-15. Haze combined with a bright moon do not make for good meteor viewing.
METEOR, METEORITE, METEOROID:
Meteors are what most people call "shooting stars" or "falling stars", but they are neither. They are bits of rock and debris from outer space that fall to earth and burn up from the heat of friction with the earth's atmosphere. It's their light generated by friction with the earth's atmosphere that we see. Usually these rocks from space just fall randomly so we only see a few per night. But sometimes the earth passes through the orbit of an ancient comet, which disintegrates as it orbits the sun and leaves a debris trail behind. As the earth passes through this cometary debris trail scores of particles fall to earth simultaneously creating a meteor shower. Really good showers like the Perseids can have peak rates in excess of 100 meteors per hour. Of course most of these are quite dim, but many bright ones are also visible creating "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" from the onlookers. The Perseid Meteor Shower results from debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, whichh has a period of 133 years. It's last perihelion passage was December 11, 1992, so it won't be back for a while.
Meteors are what most people call "shooting stars" or "falling stars", but they are neither. They are bits of rock and debris from outer space that fall to earth and burn up from the heat of friction with the earth's atmosphere. It's their light generated by friction with the earth's atmosphere that we see. Usually these rocks from space just fall randomly so we only see a few per night. But sometimes the earth passes through the orbit of an ancient comet, which disintegrates as it orbits the sun and leaves a debris trail behind. As the earth passes through this cometary debris trail scores of particles fall to earth simultaneously creating a meteor shower. Really good showers like the Perseids can have peak rates in excess of 100 meteors per hour. Of course most of these are quite dim, but many bright ones are also visible creating "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" from the onlookers. The Perseid Meteor Shower results from debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, whichh has a period of 133 years. It's last perihelion passage was December 11, 1992, so it won't be back for a while.
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| As the earth passes through the orbit of an ancient comet debris rains down on our planet creating a meteor shower. |
Most meteors are quite tiny, minuscule even, about the size of a grain of sand. Of course, we don't see an object that small in the sky, we just see the tremendous light generated as they burn up from friction. They begin to become visible at heights of around 50 miles to 175 miles high. But sometimes enormous objects fall to earth. Most recently the Great Chelyabinsk Meteor fell to earth on February 15, 2013, over the town of Chelyabinsk Russia. It was 60 feet in diameter and weighed over 12,000 tons when it entered the earth's atmosphere at a speed in excess of 100,000 MPH. It was the largest meteor to fall to earth in over 100 years and was captured by numerous dashboard cameras. I put together a compendium of the videos on YouTube, and it is one of the most dramatic astronomical events of recent memory. It is worth watching. https://youtu.be/JB2eoQfOGBA
If meteors are large enough they can survive their fiery fall through the earth's atmosphere and hit the ground, as the Chelyabinsk Meteor did. They then change their name to meteorites and can be found, collected and researched. They are primordial pieces of the solar system, over 4 billion years old. The object while still in the sky is called a meteoroid.
I am often asked how much better the peak night is than the nights around it. Here's a graph of meteor frequency against the peak and the days around it. Of course this is the total number of meteors it is possible to see. We can't see them all since we can't see the whole sky at once and many are too dim to see under the sky conditions that may prevail.
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| Meteor frequency against days of the month on and around the peak of the shower |
Go out and enjoy the sky. Stay safe by observing Coronavirus restrictions.
