One of the most prolific meteor showers of the year will peak Thursday night and Friday morning, but will Chicago-area residents be able to see the show?
The Perseid meteor shower, which occurs annually as Earth moves through the trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, can produce 60 to 100 meteors per hour at its peak.
Stargazers will have to do a few things to give themselves the best chance of seeing it, though. Here’s what we know so far.
The Forecast
As of Wednesday afternoon, the forecast remains for mostly clear skies Thursday night and Friday morning, meaning cloud cover likely won’t be a major obstacle to seeing the meteor shower.
the challenges
Even with clear skies, there will be at least one obstacle to contend with: the Supermoon Sturgeon. The final supermoon of 2022 will be in the sky Thursday night and Friday morning, and the bright light from the full moon could wipe out some of the fainter streaks of light in the Perseid sky.
How to overcome this problem
Fortunately for those interested in spotting meteors, experts say there are a few things you can do to see them.
First, the peak of the show will occur after midnight, which means the “radiant point” of the meteor shower will be highest on the eastern horizon and the moon will be lowest on the western horizon , providing darker skies.
In addition to venturing out early Friday morning and looking east, stargazers should also try to get as far away from city lights as possible to see the show, according to the experts.
Finally, Adler Planetarium officials recommend that residents allow themselves enough time to adjust to the darkness. It can take the human eye 20-30 minutes to adjust to the dark, and once it does, you’ll likely be able to see several meteors per minute.
More information about the Perseids
The meteor shower is named “Perseides” because it appears to come from the same spot in the night sky as the constellation Perseus, according to NASA.
The shower is also unique from other annual events, such as the Geminids and Quadrantids, in that it occurs during the summer, when it’s hotter and generally nicer to sit outside. These last showers take place during December and January, respectively.
Finally, the reason astronomers recommend looking east to see most meteors is because it is the side of the horizon that is at the leading edge of the Earth’s rotation on its axis, and so so it catches more meteoroids than the opposite side.