Perseid meteor shower

Skywatchers were treated to a spectacular show late Aug. 12 and early Aug. 13, compliments of the Perseid meteor shower. The display is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle.

KIERAN DOHERTY/Reuters

A meteor streaks through the night sky over Stonehenge in Salisbury Plain, southern England. (Aug. 12, 2010)

JON NAZCA/REUTERS

A view from El Torcal nature park reserve in the southern Spanish town of Antequera. (Aug. 13, 2010)

BORIS GRDANOSKI/The Associated Press

The Perseid meteor shower from just south of Macedonia's capital Skopje. (Aug. 13, 2010)

JORGE GUERRERO/AFP/Getty Images

The view near the town of Grazalema, southern Spain. (Aug. 13, 2010)

LISI NIESNER/REUTERS

A meteor streaks past stars in the night sky over Leeberg hill in Grossmugl, some 30 km north of Vienna, Austria. (Aug. 12, 2010)

Comments

[Mike]

That is absolutely incredible. I wish I had seen it in real life, I know that pictures don't do these things justice.

[TrailerMan]

It was awesome for my 8 year old son to see his very first meteors! Wish we could have stayed up later, but what we did see was marvelous.

[gauss]

With all due respect, meteors are not rare things at all. The problem is light pollution - all the ones we should be seeing, at least a few per night, are washed out by stray light. I *guarantee* that if you drive out into the countryside, and let your eyes get 'dark adjusted', you'll see meteors - every cloudless night. And, indeed, they are grand. It's just a shame that their grandeur is now usually hidden from us. One more dollar in the price of progress I guess.

[TrailerMan]

Guass, being a sort of "country boy" myself - I know that meteors in of themselves are not rare. But a display where there are 60 to 80 meteor sightings an hour is not very common at all and in order to see such a display, the earth needs to be in a position where it is traveling through one of the meteor "showers" that it visits a few times a year on it's way around the sun.

[Odessa]

Although my dad and i tried to get away from the light pollution, we were still unable to see the full show. But what i did see was really amazing! I saw a couple of nice meteors that left streaks in the sky, that was a real treat:D But it is a shame the light pollution that surrounds us prevents us from seeing the true grandeur of the August showers, and meteors in general.