Lloydminster residents will have a chance to get out of town this weekend and watch the 2018 Perseid meteor shower. The annual meteor will happen between the nights of August 11 to 12 and 12 to 13.
Astronomy Educator Gary Boyle says the shower happens at the same time each year and people will have two nights to see the Perseid.
“Earth ploughs through the debris of a comet that’s surrounding the sun and some meteor showers might generate about 10 meteors an hour, but the Perseids are over 100 meteors per hour.”
Boyle says the meteors, which are shooting starts are the size of a grain of sand and some of the bigger stars can generate fireballs that light up the sky and ground.
“The meteor shower is generated by a comet, it’s called Swift-Tuttle and it’s a periodic comet. It rounds the sun every 133 years and it last came in 1992.”
Boyle says the best place to see the shower is away from the light, which means heading out of the city but advises people not to trespass on other peoples properties.
“The key is to get out of town to a nice flat open area because these meteors actually burn and vaporize anywhere in the sky, north, south, east or west. It’s one area where they come from, but where they hit the atmosphere could be anywhere.”
The meteor will strike the atmosphere at around 60 km/sec. Meteors happen all year round and the next big one is the Geminids shower in December.
