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Perseid meteors will shoot across sky early Sunday By MELISSA MARTIN Stargazers can enjoy the year's best meteor shower in the wee hours of the morning Sunday. The Perseid meteor shower happens every year around the middle of August when the Earth passes through a stream of debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, sparking a flurry of shooting starts that will be most intense before dawn. However, a swollen quarter moon will rise at midnight Sunday and will be high in the sky by dawn. Stargazers may see only 20 to 30 meteors per hour because of the bright light. The best time to watch is between midnight and dawn Sunday morning. They are about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper and noted for their colorful, long-lasting trails. Perseid meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, sometimes streaking 15 degrees across the heavens. So you won't need to look directly toward the constellation Perseus to see them, although their trails will point back toward the radiant. The constellation Perseus is near the North Star, or Polaris. Two stars in the Big Dipper point toward Polaris. At 4 a.m. Sunday, the constellation will be about as high in the sky as the moon. Stargazers may note other bright objects: the planets Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. For a map, go to http://thursdaysclassroom.com, and click on "Perseid Meteor Shower." Meteors strike Earth's atmosphere at 130,000 miles per hour. Made up of bits of space dust usually smaller than a grain of sand, they are extremely fragile and vaporize in the air about 62 miles above Earth, according to a Web site by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Here's the best way to view the meteor shower, according to NASA Science News: Find an observation site as far as possible from urban lights. Bring a reclining chair or spread a blanket over a flat spot on the ground. Lie down and look up somewhat toward the north. Don't look in the direction of the moon. Instead, turn your back to the moon and face somewhat away from the Perseid radiant. For details, visit www.spaceweather.com. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.