For one thing, there won’t be any competition from the moon. The moon sets shortly after 10 p.m. local daylight time on the 11th in northern latitudes.
Secondly, NASA announced this summer that the Perseids are the “fireball champion,” consistently producing more fireballs — extra-bright meteors — than any other shower.
The Perseid meteor shower occurs as earth orbits through the debris of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Some debris burns as it enters our atmosphere, creating both the small meteors and the fireballs. (The comet itself orbits the Sun once every 130 years and last returned to the inner solar system in 1992.)
NASA predicts the best show will be Monday and Tuesday night between 10:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. local time. The rate of meteors will increase as the night goes on, peaking before sunrise.
The meteors will appear to radiate from a spot between the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus in the northeastern skies. This spot gets higher in the sky as dawn approaches.
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