How to view the Perseids Meteor Shower in Perth

The Perseids meteor shower is once nearly upon us.

This meteor shower has been observed for at least 2,000 years now and is connected with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 133 years.

Every August, The Earth passes through the debris field left by the comet’s tail, which consists of ice and dust that can be over 1,000 years old.

This debris field will enter The Earth’s atmosphere and burns up to create one of the best meteor showers of the year.

The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, with the best viewing being in the northern hemisphere.

People with sharp eyes will be able see that the meteors appear to come from the constellation Perseus and that’s where they get their name from.

The field will start to hit The Earth from about mid-July, with it finishing up towards the end of August.

At its peaks which occurs around the 12th and 13th of August, The Earth can expected to be hit with rates often exceed 100 meteors per hour.

Unfortunately for us in Australia, unless this year’s Perseids meteor shower is special we’ll only be able to see about 5 – 15 meteors per hour due to the fact we are so low in the southern hemisphere which is a real shame.

Seeing the Perseids in Perth

For Perth shooting start lovers, it’s best to go out and look north east between the hours of 4:00am – 6:30am.

Yeah I know 4:00am is an ungodly hour, but it you’re not coming home from shift work, or getting ready to go to work, how about going for a nice walk or run in the crisp morning air.

If you rather sleep then you can follow the shower online at NASA’s Ustream page on the 13th of August at 10am – 2pm Perth Time.

Live : NASA TV below or more at NASA’s meteor showers page.

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

– Matt Woods from Perth Observatory

The Best from Instagram from previous Perseids Meteor Showers

This remarkable view captured on August 13, 2011 by astronaut Ron Garan looks down on a Perseid meteor. From Garan's perspective onboard the International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of about 380 kilometers, the Perseid meteors streak below, swept up dust left from comet Swift-Tuttle heated to incandescence. The glowing comet dust grains are traveling at about 60 kilometers per second through the denser atmosphere around 100 kilometers above Earth's surface. In this case, the foreshortened meteor flash is right of frame center, below the curving limb of the Earth and a layer of greenish airglow, just below bright star Arcturus. #perseid #meteor #perseidmeteor #meteorshower #space #astronomy #astrophotography #cosmos #nasa #iss #astronaut

A photo posted by Astronomy (@_.astronomy._) on Mar 17, 2015 at 7:06pm PDT

A photo posted by OliveCurls™ (@olivecurls) on Aug 12, 2014 at 6:52pm PDT

A photo posted by Astronomy & Space Exploration (@astrodreams_) on Aug 9, 2015 at 6:14pm PDT

This week's Perseid Meteor Shower is named for the constellation Perseus due to it's relative point of origin in the sky. If you can find the constellation Perseus you will be able to maximize your meteoric amazement. 🙂 This is a photo that I made about five years ago during the 2010 Perseid Meteor Shower. It is a combination of three hours of shooting the sky above Trillium Lake. My Method: This shot is three hours worth of photos. I set my camera to shoot 360 30 second shots one after the other. During this time I was able to capture the falling stars that you see in the photo. After shooting I sorted through every photo and separated each one that had a shooting star in it. I then imported them all in to Photoshop and layered them on top of each other. Once they were layered I masked out everything but the streak of the meteor. Once I had them all separated from the sky I rotated each layer according to the amount of time that had passes during shooting to compensate for the rotation of Earth. Once this was done I layered them all over the top of a 30 minute exposure of star trails to give the shot a sense of time. This is the result. I hope that you enjoy it. I hope that you get a chance to go out and stand under the night sky this week. Please visit the link in my profile for a free copy of my ebook Basic DSLR Photography. #oregon #oregonexplored #mthood #mounthood #trilliumlake #traveloregon #omht #pnw #pacificnorthwest #exploreoregon #traveloregon #oregonexplored #pnwonderland #exploregon #cascademountains #thecascades #adventure #guidedtours #phototours #workshops #photography #randallpics #perseidmeteorshower #perseids #astrophotography

A photo posted by Gary Randall (@gary_randall) on Aug 9, 2015 at 4:18pm PDT

Don't forget to watch the sky tonight – the chance to work on your wish list #perseidshower #stars #moment #sky #tonight

A photo posted by Laura Yawira Scheffer (@yawira) on Aug 11, 2014 at 9:21am PDT

Perseid Meteor Shower The Shooting Star has been revered with awe and amazement throughout history. Iron meteorites provided iron for people to use for tools and weapons before the art of smelting was known. Finding such meteorites was rare and the ancients did understand the meteorites connection with sky. This was evidenced in the names given them. In ancient Kemet, they called meteorites the 'metal of heaven' (be-ne-pe). 18 items of meteoritic iron were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen. The oldest Sumerian word for iron meant "sky" and "fire." The Hittites, one of the first to use weapons from smelted terrestrial iron, called the metal "fire from heaven." The Assyrians too, extracted iron from ore and called it "fragment from heaven." The Perseid meteors appear to radiate from the legendary constellation of Perseus, named for the hero in ancient Greek mythology. Every year from around July 17th to August 24th, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower. The bits and pieces from Comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 210,000 kilometers (130,000 miles) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving meteors. These swift-moving and often bright meteors frequently leave persistent trains – ionized gas trails lasting for a few moments after the meteor has already gone. Watch for these meteors to streak the nighttime in front of the age-old, lore-laden constellations from late night until dawn as we approach the second weekend in August. Art: meteor shower over Stonehenge #wisdom #esoteric #symbolism #philosophy #science #religion #cosmic #perseidmeteorshower #perseid #meteor

A photo posted by Eye of Horus (Ma'at Heru) (@eyeofhorus1) on Aug 7, 2015 at 9:58pm PDT

A photo posted by @scootteddy on Aug 9, 2015 at 1:18pm PDT

A video posted by Julia (@allyanora) on Aug 9, 2015 at 11:28am PDT