The Perseid meteor shower is active from July 17th to August 24th. The Earth is anticipated to encounter the densest part of the dust trail during the very early hours of 13th August. The Moon will is full on the 12th August, and although the Moon remains low to the horizon, it will brighten the night sky and make visual observation of the peak activity difficult. Radio observations don't have this problem.
The Perseid meteors all appear to emanate from the same point in the sky, the radiant. The radiant lies close to the constellation of Perseus and, due to the rotation of the Earth, appears to move across the observer's sky in a repeating pattern throughout each 24 hour period of the shower. The following is for the location of the GB3MBA beacon, but will be similar for any UK observer.
- Perseids2022Alt.jpg (57.05 KiB) Viewed 25416 times
The Perseid radiant will continue to rise throughout the night and will be almost overhead in the early hours of the morning. The meteor flux will be greatest at this time. The Perseid meteor trails will appear relatively short. This geometry is less favourable to provide a meteor path tangential to the forward-scatter system ellipse.
Perseid meteors intercept the Earth's atmosphere at 59 km/s.