Perseids 2022. Rain of “shooting stars”. The maximum of the swarm is behind us. Where will the weather be favorable for observations?

On the night from Friday to Saturday fell “night of shooting stars” – the peak of Perseid activity. Under ideal conditions, you can then see up to about 100 falling meteors per hour, but this time the observations were made more difficult by the Moon, which was super full on Thursday night. The overcast sky made the situation even more complicated.

However, that doesn’t mean we’ve completely missed the chance to see shooting stars this year. Although the swarm’s peak activity has passed, meteors will still be visible in the night sky. As he announces NASAThe Perseids will begin to weaken around August 21-22, and will cease completely by September 1.

This year, the Perseid swarm was clearly visible in, for example, Bosnia.

Meteors, colloquially known as shooting stars, are phenomena that occur when they fly through the atmosphere of rock particles from space, called meteoroids. The vast majority of them are destroyed in the atmosphere. Extremely bright meteors are called bolides, and if the rock that flew into the atmosphere managed to survive and reach the Earth’s surface, we will be dealing with a meteorite.

The Perseids are the remains of comet 109P / Swift-Tuttle, which appears near the Sun once every 133 years. Each visit causes the comet’s icy nucleus to partially melt, releasing a multitude of tiny rock debris. As the Earth passes through a cloud of cosmic dust, the crumbs burn in the atmosphere, accompanied by a characteristic flare.

You do not need telescopes or binoculars to observe them. It is best to choose a place from which you can see a large part of the sky, away from the city light. The rule is simple – the darker the area, the better.

There are several superstitions associated with the Perseids. Formerly they were called the Tears of St. Lawrence, who was martyred around August 10. In some cultures it was believed that every shooting star heralded the death of a human being. There is also a superstition that makes you make a wish when you see a shooting star.