The best way to see the Perseid Meteor Shower over the next few nights is just to look up...especially between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 am.
The waning crescent moon and its inherent brightness however, will inhibit our viewing of the meteor show here in Acadiana.
So the best time for Tuesday night will be from 1:00-2:00 am, for Wednesday night up until about 1:00-3:00 am, and Thursday night up until 4:00 am as the moon rises 50 minutes later each day.
Meteor showers are notorious for their lack of year to year predictability, so no promises on the numbers you may see per hour...it all depends on the shower, and how dark the skies are where you are located.
Interestingly enough, most meteors you see streaking across the sky in this shower are generally the size of a pea to a marble!
A few larger "bolide" meteors may be visible over the next few nights as well, but there visibility is usually limited to and more sporadic during the earlier evening hours.
And the best bet is to get away from city lights, give your eyes a good 15 minutes to adjust to the night sky, and get a chair or chaise lounge to make it more comfortable to look up...and DON'T FORGET THE MOSQUITO REPELLENT!
If you don't catch any meteors or make any wishes in the nights ahead, we still have four planets visible during the overnight hours, with Jupiter and just to the left of it, Saturn, rising in the evening southeastern sky migrating into the southern and southwestern sky as the night wears on.
Mars follows as the late night planet rising in the east and running out ahead of the moon and has been showing nice "orangeness" in the last few nights which should only become more vivid in the days ahead with less moon light around.
Plus, for you early morning risers you have the beautiful and the brightest, Venus to view, prior to sunrise!
Although we’ll have a better chance of daytime showers/storms developing across Acadiana for the peak of Perseids through the 13th, it appears most of our nights should clear and favorable for viewing the heavens!
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