Popularly known as Id-dmugħ ta’ San Lawrenz, the Perseid meteor shower will be mainly visible in the northern hemisphere from Friday to August 14, with its peak on the night of the 12th.

This month’s shooting stars will be produced from bits and pieces of Comet Swift-Tuttle (109P/Swift-Tuttle), which burns up when entering the earth’s atmosphere at speeds exceeding 200,000 km/h.

The remnants of this comet are only the size of grains of sand, but their high velocity gives them very high kinetic energy.

The moon will be a waxing crescent approaching the first quarter (on August 14) on the night of the maximum, so it will set early enough to create the dark sky conditions required to see many meteors. The number of meteors can reach between 60 to 80 per hour – but a dark sky is essential as light pollution will only allow the brighter meteors to be seen.

From the best locations overlooking the sea (any remote locations preferably on the east coast of Malta or Gozo are fine), you will also be able to see the Milky Way – a greyish band of light towards the south that is made up of millions of stars within our galaxy.

Observing meteors requires no instruments such as telescopes or binoculars – just lie down to be able to view as large an area of sky as possible.

For best results one should observe in the hours after midnight (early Tuesday morning), as few meteors will be seen earlier in the evening. This is due to the radiant, or the location from which the Perseid meteors will appear to originate, which would still be below the horizon. The area of origin will lie within the constellation Perseus, hence their name (Perseids).

Anybody wanting to photograph meteors should try their luck with meteor photography by taking multiple wide-angle long exposure shots with the camera firmly mounted on a tripod.

For up-to-date information visit the society’s Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/maltastro.

Alexei Pace is president of the Astronomical Society of Malta.

Events during this month