Meteors will light night sky

The most interesting show in town might be overhead.

The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak tonight and Wednesday night. The shower is the result of the spinning Earth colliding with the dust trail of the Swift-Tuttle comet, said Gary Senn, the director of the DuPont Planetarium at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

"When we see a comet, we see the tail of the comet, that is, dust particles coming off of the surface of the comet core," he said. The comet follows a particular track, and Earth's orbit crosses its wake around the same time each year, Dr. Senn said. The tiny bits of dust ignite as they enter Earth's atmosphere, resulting in bright streaks across the sky.

"The friction with our atmosphere is enough to cause the particle to burn up," he said. "So we're seeing it actually disintegrating, burning up, in the Earth's atmosphere. And there are times, depending upon the size and the angle of the particular particle, that we see a nice little fireball in the sky."

The Perseid meteor shower is a good one to catch because it is fairly bright and takes place during warm weather, Dr. Senn said.

"This year is going to be good because it won't require people to be up in the wee hours of the morning," he said. "There will be some good viewing right after sunset, as soon as it starts to get a little bit darker." The best times are probably between 9:30 and 11 p.m.

I t doesn't take any special equipment to catch the show, Dr. Senn said.

"In fact, using an optical device for a meteor shower is limiting," he said, "It's nearly impossible to have binoculars or a telescope pointing at the object when it comes out. Also, they travel a good distance, so your eye is the best optical device to use to see a meteor shower."

It might help to get away from city lights that can block out some of the meteors, Dr. Senn said.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.