If you get up in the wee hours on the night of August 11-12, 2016, you can see summer’s most spectacular celestial event, the annual Perseid meteor showers, which will streak across the North American sky in the hours before dawn.
This year, you could see as many as 200 meteors per hour in the hours before dawn. And you won’t need binoculars.
The meteors, typically fast and bright, originate in the constellation Perseus and are visible in all parts of the sky. The long bright streak you will see is an icy, dusty debris stream the comet sheds as it orbits the sun.
