The Perseid Meteor Shower of 2010

By now you may have heard that the Perseid meteor shower is liable to be a good one this year. We've even gone so far as to change the date of our annual barbecue/star party from September to August 14 to coincide with what we hope will be some celestial fireworks worth staying up for. The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most consistent performers and the meteors produced are some the brightest of all meteor showers. Perseid meteoroids enter the atmosphere at 60 km/sec, and the resulting meteors often leave behind persistent ionization trains.New Moon occurs just prior to the peak of the shower so there will be no interference from moonlight. Some meteors are only 5th magnitude, or fainter, and can easily be lost to the glare of the Moon for the fleeting seconds we see them disintegrate in the atmosphere. A clear, dark, moonless night is perfect for catching all the meteors, not just the biggest and brightest.The Perseids get their name from the point in the sky they appear to come from, called the radiant. If you could draw an imaginary line back through the trail of all the meteors you would see them converge ...