By Chelsea Gohd of space com
The Perseids are back! This week, you can catch the 2020 Perseid meteor shower, a favorite of many skywatchers, as it peaks thanks to four different webcasts over the next two days from the Virtual Telescope Project, NASA, Lowell Observatory and the online astronomy learning platform Slooh.
The Perseids meteor shower appears when Earth passes through the rubble left by Comet Swift-Tuttle and peaks this week in the early morning hours on Wednesday (Aug. 12), according to NASA. But you should still be able to enjoy great views of the Perseids on Aug. 11 and Aug. 13 as well if you can find your way to some dark skies. The bright meteor shower has an impressive average rate of between 50 and 75 meteors per hour; in outburst years, it can produce upwards of 150 to 200 meteors per hour.
So how can you catch a glimpse of the Perseids? Meteor showers are best viewed with the naked eye, Slooh said in an email statement. However, bright moonlight from the waning last-quarter moon this year could interfere with catching glimpse of the spectacle.
Luckily, the Lowell Observatory, NASA, Slooh and the Virtual Telescope Project will all be sharing webcasts of the spectacle so, one way or another, you’ll be able to spot some meteors. Read on for our Perseids webcast guide for 2020. Read more from Space.com
Related: Perseid meteor shower 2020: When, where & how to see it
