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ASTRONOMY

How to spot the 'best meteor shower of the year' in Lebanon this weekend

The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak this Sunday. Shortly after midnight, Earth will pass directly through the massive comet's trail of debris.

How to spot the 'best meteor shower of the year' in Lebanon this weekend

Image of a Perseid meteor over Joshua Tree National Park. (Credit: Brad Sutton/National Parks Service, released by NASA)

BEIRUT — The yearly Perseid meteor shower, named for the Perseus constellation it appears to come from, will last through most of August but is expected to peak this Sunday night, Aug. 11.

According to NASA, the Perseid, which is part of the debris stream of the Swift-Tuttle comet, is considered to be the best meteor shower of the year. The Swift-Tuttle is a large comet discovered in the 19th century. It takes 133 years for this comet to complete one orbit around the Sun.

President of the UniversCiel association and former national astronomy education coordinator of the International Astronomical Union organization, Jean-Pierre Saghbini, told L'Orient Today that meteor showers happen when debris that is left in space — mostly from comets — enters the Earth's atmosphere.

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NASA also indicates that Perseids are known for their fireballs, which are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak. 

This meteor shower is called the Perseids because its radiant (the point in the sky from which it appears to come) is the constellation Perseus, named after the mythical Greek hero known for beheading the snake-haired Medusa and saving Andromeda from a ship-sized sea serpent.

The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only "serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night," NASA says.

The U.S. governmental agency also shared some tips for whoever wants to watch the shooting stars: One should try to get to the darkest possible location outside the city and check the weather forecast of the area to make sure the sky is clear.

'Two hundred beautiful shooting stars'

According to Saghbini, the best places to watch the Perseid meteor shower are areas with minimal light pollution and low humidity.

He added that "any area 1,000 meters above sea level is a good place to watch them." Not a difficult altitude to reach in Lebanon's mountainous landscape — the Cedars, Tannourine, Shouf — although avoiding light pollution and humidity may prove to be a more challenging task.

Five to ten meteors per hour can easily be seen during the shower's peak, Saghbini said. According to NASA, "the number actually varies every year. There can be as little as a few dozen per hour, but some rare years bring a brief burst of up to 200 beautiful shooting stars an hour."

The President of UniversCiel said that the best time to watch them is after midnight because, around that time, the "Earth goes straight into the debris" left by the comet. 

BEIRUT — The yearly Perseid meteor shower, named for the Perseus constellation it appears to come from, will last through most of August but is expected to peak this Sunday night, Aug. 11.According to NASA, the Perseid, which is part of the debris stream of the Swift-Tuttle comet, is considered to be the best meteor shower of the year. The Swift-Tuttle is a large comet discovered in the...