Let's look at the sky. There are nights of falling stars ahead of us.

Warm summer temperatures are conducive to spending late evenings outdoors. One of the attractions of the summer sky are meteors – shooting stars. These are light streaks accompanying the passage of a rock fragment from space through the Earth's atmosphere. Most of these particles burn up in the atmosphere, only the larger ones are able to reach the surface of our planet and after falling we find them as meteorites.

The conventional maximum of the year for the southern Delta Aquarids fell on July 30 – unlike many other showers, it is impossible to determine a specific moment of their greatest activity. The meteors appear in the period from July 12 to August 23, and they can be most conveniently observed in the southern hemisphere. However, this does not mean that astronomy enthusiasts from the northern part of our planet should give up observing the sky – the Perseids are starting to fly more and more vigorously above our heads.

The Perseids are among the most active meteor showers. Their activity begins on July 17 and lasts until August 24. However, the most important period is around the maximum, which usually falls on the night of August 12 to 13. According to the American Astronomical Society, the predicted moment of maximum this year will fall on August 12 at around 4 p.m.

The Perseids are a meteor shower known since antiquity. They are fast meteors. They can have trails that last a moment after passing. They reach speeds of 59 kilometers per second. They usually fall in groups of 6-15 meteors over 2-3 minutes. At the maximum, there can be up to 100 meteors per hour (in theoretical, ideal conditions).

The Perseid meteors are associated with the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. This is a periodic comet that passes by Earth every 133 years. It was first spotted in 1862, independently by American astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle. It reappeared in 1922, when it was spotted by Japanese astronomer Tsuruhiko Kiuchi and was visible through binoculars.

In the August sky, we will also see the much weaker Alpha Capricornids, which appear from July 3 to August 15, and their maximum occurred on the night of July 28 to 29. Some of the luminous streaks may come from the Eta Eridanids shower, visible from July 31 to August 19, with a maximum on August 8.

Meteors appear in the sky all year round. They may be random phenomena, but there are also many so-called meteor showers. Meteors from a given shower appear at a specific time of year and “run out” from the same area of ​​the sky. For some of them, it was possible to identify an object in space (a comet) that is their source.

To see meteors, our eyes are enough, no binoculars or telescopes are needed. What is needed is a cloudless sky and, ideally, visibility over a large section of the sky. The darker the area, the more meteors we will see, so if we cannot go outside the city, try to find an area where street lights do not shine in our eyes.

At the time of the Perseids' maximum, Earth's natural satellite will be in its first quarter. It will set before 10 p.m., which means that its glow will not interfere with meteors' visibility later in the night.