Next week, Saskatchewan residents will get a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower, with August 11 and 12 looking to be the most magical.
Local astronomer Tim Yaworski, also known as Saskatchewan’s ‘Living Sky Guy’, said each year the earth moves through a debris field left behind by a comet back in 1992.
“It left this gravel road out in space and every year the earth’s orbit takes it across that gravel road. The earth’s atmosphere is basically colliding with this debris.”
The debris ranges from fist-size, all the way down to the size of a grain of sand. The dust particles burn in the atmosphere and look like shooting stars through the sky.
“We are talking about 100 to 120 (meteors) per hour is what our possibilities are for the Perseid,” Yaworski said.
In the past few years, the moonlight has hindered the ability to see the shooting stars, but Yaworski said that shouldn’t be the case this year.
“Get outside of the city, ideally the darker the better,” Yaworski said. “Even 15 minutes out of the city, put the lights behind you and just sit back and enjoy the show.”
He said the best time to catch the show will be from midnight to sunrise.
All photos courtesy of Tim Yaworski.