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Weather Forecast for Perseids Meteor Shower Peak 2012: Clear Skies in Iowa City; Best Time and Place to Watch

The weather forecast is favorable for a spectacular view.

The Perseids Meteor Shower 2012 should be at its peak Saturday, and the weather gods are cooperating for what should be a fantastic show.

The weather forecast for Iowa City is for clear skies with virtually no chance of rain Saturday night, although some clouds will be moving in Sunday.

NASA says Perseid rates can get as high as 100 per hour, with many fireballs visible in the night sky. A waning crescent moon will interfere slightly with this meteor shower, NASA says, but adds that "viewing should definitely be worth a look!"

On the night of Aug. 11-12, astronomer Bill Cooke and his team from the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will answer questions about the 2012 Perseid meteor shower via an "Up All Night" live chat. To join the chat, go to this page and log in. The chat experts will be available to answer questions between the hours of 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. Iowa time, beginning the evening of Aug. 11 and continuing into the morning of Aug. 12. 

Find out what's happening in Iowa Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The shower splashes through the sky every year in early August when Earth passes through the comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit and sweeps up some of this debris. We see shooting stars -- rapid streaks of light -- as the tiny rocks encounter the thin upper atmosphere of the Earth and the air is heated to incandescence.

You can see the shower anywhere in the sky, but look toward the southeastern sky to see the meteors at their brightest and longest.

Find out what's happening in Iowa Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As we offered earlier, here is a bit of advice from Space.com

If you don't see any meteors at first, be patient. This is a meteor shower, not a meteor storm. There will be a lot more meteors than you would see on a normal night, but they will still only come at random intervals, perhaps 20 or 30 in an hour.

When you do see a meteor, it will likely be very fast and at the edge of your field of vision. You may even doubt that what you saw was real. But, when you do see something, watch that area more closely, as two or three meteors often come in groups down the same track.

 

The Iowa City Astronomy Club also has some words on the shower:

The perseids typically produce 60 or more meteors per hour under dark skies. (And Sokum Ridge is definitely a dark site!) The greatest number of meteors will be seen after midnight, when the radiant is higher in the sky. A crescent moon will rise around 1:00 a.m., but it shouldn’t interfere too much, since Pereids are usually bright. Let’s hope we have clear skies, and the Perseids put on a great show!


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