VANCOUVER — This year’s Perseid meteor shower is predicted to be at its best late Wednesday night until dawn on Thursday, says the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Viewers in dark locations could see 60 to 100 meteors an hour, said Jim Todd, OMSI’s director of space science education.
When the evening’s first stars appear, the meteors’ originating point (or radiant) will be low in the northeast. Don’t concentrate on that one area, Todd said. Let your gaze wander over much of the sky. Meteors that appear near the radiant will have short paths while those that begin farther out have much longer paths.
As the hours pass, the radiant rises. Most meteors can be seen from midnight to dawn. Viewing near city lights will reduce their numbers but the brightest ones will show up.
The Perseid shower is long, from about July 15 to Aug. 25. It occurs when the Earth enters a debris path left by the comet Swift-Tuttle in its last trip past the sun in 1992. As comets orbit the sun, they shed a stream of icy, dusty particles that ignite when they hit the atmosphere.
A free viewing party is 9 p.m. Wednesday at Rooster Rock State Park, 22 miles east of Portland off Interstate 84.
