A PERSEID meteor shower is set to light up UK skies tonight – here’s how to catch a glimpse of the spectacular sight.
Expected to be one of the most “dramatic” ones yet, Brits could witness around 100 shooting stars per hour.
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Stargazers are in for a treat on Saturday night until the early hours of Sunday morning with the display set to be at its peak then.
The shower is the debris left behind Comet Swift-Tuttle, which comes around every 20 to 200 years.
It was last seen in 1992.
The average speed for a Perseid meteor is around 36-miles-per-second, which will decorate the sky with fast, bright meteor trains.
Meteor trains appear when the air in front of the meteor is squashed and heated to thousands of degrees Celsius.
Smaller meteors then vaporise and leave behind a bright trail of light behind them, which the larger meteors can explode into fireballs.
Perseid is “one of the most dramatic things to see in the night sky between July and August,” according to the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
While the shower will peak this weekend, it will be active between 17 July and 24 August.
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How do I see it?
To give yourself the best chance of seeing the shower, you should first check the weather forecast.
If it is likely to be wet and cold, it’s best to find a different location.
It’s also wise to choose a spot with little light pollution, and a view unobstructed by a skyline or trees.
Give your eyes at least 15 minutes to adjust to the dark so that you can see the fainter meteors.
The best time to catch a glimpse of the display will be between midnight and 5:30am.
But for folks in the UK, you might even be able to spot them in early evening, as the sun sets.
Binoculars and telescopes won’t be necessary, as they will restrict the size of the sky that’s visible to you.
