The Perseid meteor shower, an annual celestial treat, will be visible in night skies throughout Colorado in early August.
The natural fireworks will be most active Aug. 9-15, peaking in the early morning hours of Aug. 13 when, just after midnight, between 80 to 200 meteors per hour could be visible, according to experts at Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Viewing is best where the sky is darkest. People also should avoid using binoculars and telescopes, which narrow the field of vision, according to Francisco Salas, program supervisor at CU-Boulder's Fiske Planetarium.
This year the moon, which will be about 50 percent full, also will affect viewing by adding some extra light "pollution" to the night sky that may limit the viewing of some meteors.
"The moon will set early in the evening, so anytime after 10 p.m. should be prime viewing to avoid the moon," Salas said. "I would also advise driving out away from any cities, such as up in the mountains or out on the plains."
The Perseid meteor shower is named for the Perseus constellation from which the meteors, or shooting stars, appear to radiate. It occurs every August. On other nights during the year, only five to 10 meteors per hour can be seen.
Meteor showers occur when the Earth crosses the path of a comet, sweeping through debris left behind along the orbit. Millions of chunks of ice and dust make up the tail of a comet. These chunks of debris might be as small as a pea and travel through the solar system at more than 36,000 miles per hour.
"A meteor shower is sort of like driving a car through a snowstorm, with the Earth as the car and the chunks of space junk as the snow," Salas said.
The Perseid meteor shower is caused by the Earth passing through the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which is in orbit around the sun. The chunks of space junk that make up the tail are only seen as meteors when they get caught in Earth's gravity and burn up in the atmosphere, he said.
Another popular meteor shower is the Leonid, which occurs each year in November.