Perseid Meteor Shower Will Light Up Arizona Sky
Arizonans can look upon a shooting star this weekend. The Perseid meteor shower happens every August, and at its peak it is quite radiant.
Brian Skiff is a research scientist with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. He said that stargazers can expect up to 100 meteors an hour.
"The Perseids are characterized by being pretty bright and having big, long trails behind them, and so they're pretty distinctive," Skiff said.
Skiff said after midnight is best for viewing, and it does not matter where you look.
"They're not coming from a specific spot. They are coming from a specific spot in the sky, but they're radiating over the whole sky, because often they'll be big, long trains going 50, 60 degrees across the sky," he said.
The shower is a result of a tilt in Swift Tuttle’s orbit, a comet whose dust the Earth passes through each summer. It will be visible through August 14.
