Shooting Stars Galore

If you look into the night sky this week, you should see a lot of shooting stars. Local skywatcher Ken McAllister of Steinbach says the annual Perseid Meteor Shower will produce an average of one shooting star per minute on peak nights.
   
McAllister says these shooting stars are actually "just a piece of dust that is basically burning up as it comes close to the earth's atmosphere. That's really all it is. No stars are falling, so earth is safe."

For this particular meteor shower, McAllister says "there's a comet called Swift-Tuttle that comes every one hundred and thirty years and it kind of left some residue that the earth goes through as the earth passes through that part of its orbit around the sun.

McAllister suggests looking towards the northeast sky, but he cautions unfortunately this year won't be as spectacular as some years. "It's a little bit odd this year because the fullish moon is going to get in the way. So the peak is actually later on this week towards August twelfth but I would say the best time to go would be anytime this evening on."

As one of the more prolific meteor showers, McAllister says "on a night when you're watching at its peak, you can see as many as one meteor a minute. So if you're looking for an hour, you'll see up to sixty meteors, which is pretty cool."

Meanwhile, McAllister says that's not the only reason for stargazing these nights. He notes Jupiter can be seen in the southeast sky. It will be the brightest object in the sky other than the moon. He notes "Jupiter is a fascinating object to look at with binoculars because you can see actually up to four of its largest moons."