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The Perseids are one of the two strongest and most dependable
annual meteor showers (the Geminids of December are the other).
Earth’s orbit carries us through the densest part of the
Perseid meteoroid stream every year around August 11th or 12th,
so these “shooting stars” appear almost like clockwork.
Their rates, however, can vary a lot from year to year. An observer
under a dark sky might typically see more than 60 Perseids per
hour between midnight and dawn. Since the waning crescent Moon
will be only three days from new at the time of shower maximum,
this is an opportune year for watching them.
But that is only one reason why anticipation is running high among
meteor observers. How the 2004 shower will actually perform is
anybody’s guess — but it will probably be better than
normal, and there’s a chance it could be spectacular.
Meteor Basics
The meteoroids of the Perseid stream range in size from pebbles
to sand grains and have a consistency like bits of ash. They ram
into our upper atmosphere at a speed of 60 kilometers per second,
creating incandescent trails of shocked, ionized air as they vaporize
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