When and how to watch

The Perseid meteor shower — which stargazers say is one of the best meteor showers of the year — is set to peak between August 11 and 13.

But you don’t have to wait long, as the first meteors appear in July and will continue to appear throughout most of August.

Experts say the best chance to spot the meteor begins after midnight and ends about an hour before sunrise.

Although meteors can be seen with the naked eye, you should check the weather conditions in your area as they may affect visibility.

The Perseids meteor shower can be seen all over the world, and is so named because it appears to originate from within the constellation Perseus.

While the shower will only show a few meteors per hour on most nights, the peak of the Perseids could bring more and more of them.

If you’re really lucky, you might be able to see 100 or more meteors per hour, according to scientists.

We see meteors when Earth passes through the debris trails of comets or asteroids. When this debris hits our planet’s atmosphere, it burns up and creates stunning streaks of light.

The Perseids – pronounced “PER-see-des” – are produced by debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle.

Dr Gregory Brown, Senior Public Astronomy Officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said the Perseids are one of the fastest meteor showers.

They travel at speeds of up to 37 miles per second, but they are about the size of paint flecks or grains of sand falling into the atmosphere.

“While this causes a rather impressive light show, there is absolutely no chance of them hitting the ground. And even if they did, they are very small objects so they wouldn’t cause any damage.”

Try to get to the darkest place you can with a clear view of the sky.

The darker you are, the better your chances of seeing meteors streak across the sky.

“Fill your field of view with as much sky as you can, lying down or using a recliner, and then just wait and let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and eventually, hopefully when it’s nice and clear and you watch for an hour or so, you should be able to pick up at least a handful of them,” Dr. Brown said.