08/11/2020 – Ephemeris – Tonight is the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 12 minutes, setting at 8:53, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:42. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 12:46 tomorrow morning.

This evening and tomorrow morning we should see the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. There is the expected broad peak of the shower which for us is after sunrise. However the meteoroid stream isn’t monolithic. Each pass of the comet in the inner solar system superimposes its debris on the general stream, so we will have increased activity all night tonight and even into the next few mornings. In general Perseid meteors will be seen to come from the northeast. The evening view will be not hampered by the Moon until it rises at 12:46 am which will drown out the dimmer meteors. The best time to view is from about 10 or 10:30 pm to 12:46 am. The Perseids are the most active meteor shower visible in warm weather, with a possible over 50 meteors per hour.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

My best Perseid photo. From the 1970’s.

Perseid radiant at 11 pm, August 11th at the top of the constellation of Perseus, below the W shaped constellation of Cassiopeia. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.