Fire In The Sky: The Perseid Meteor Shower

“I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky ...” — John Denver, Rocky Mountain High

Photo by Rick Spitzer.

There are many rewards to experience in Colorado mountain summer nights. Cool breezes, lingering sunsets, soulful silences, star gazing and other spectacular celestial events. It’s always welcoming to spot Orion the Hunter hovering above, a familiar anchor in our ever shifting world.

One of the most dramatic performances on nature’s playlist is the annual Perseid meteor shower. The Perseids are visible across the high country, mid-July through August. The event is a regular must-see for seasoned meteor experts and enthusiasts, but is it on your radar?

PLAN AHEAD

Heads Up: 2024 should be an excellent year to observe the shower on its peak night. Lunar movement is like precise clockwork and, on August 12, 2024, the half-moon is scheduled to set about midnight, staging dark skies as the perfect backdrop to highlight the shower until dawn’s early light. Optimum time to look for meteors is in the pre-dawn hours on peak viewing dates.

Hike Up: the higher and darker, the better! Many Colorado locales host viewing events and astronomy programs including Rocky Mountain National Park (Trail Ridge Road or Beaver Meadows) and Mueller State Park in Colorado Springs. Seek out “dark spots” at Guanella Pass, Echo Lake/Mt. Evans, Steamboat, Leadville, Maroon Bells-Snowmass or Holy Cross Wilderness areas, Great Sand Dunes National Park, etc.

Look Up: wherever you are, step outside and look up! If you can’t be at high altitude, the Perseid meteor shower is often visible at lower elevations, too. Telescope not required … except for enhanced effects! To spot meteors in northern latitudes, view to the north.

Lucky sky watchers searching for the Perseids may also spot stray meteors generated by the southern delta Aquariid meteor shower, which peaks in late July.

This fall, four full “supermoons” will occur as the Moon moves closer to Earth than at any other time during the year. If you miss the supermoon on August 19, you may still observe others during lunar cycles on September 18, October 17 or November 15, 2024.

Layer Up: high-altitude nights are chilly, so dress warmly.

Read Up: what creates the shower? This phenomenon occurs when the Earth makes its yearly “dive” through debris clouds left behind in the solar system by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Given proper conditions, it is possible to spot about 100 light trails or fireballs per hour. The meteors appear to come directly from the Perseus constellation in the northeastern sky; in reality, they travel in our solar system.

When Comet Swift-Tuttle speeds close to our sun star, heat radiation causes solid ice to transform immediately into gas. This gas escapes the comet and scatters fragments of ice, dust and rock to be deposited around the sun.

As Earth travels annually around the sun, each summer it passes through this stream of debris material. Heated ice and dust fragments enter our atmosphere at speeds up to 130,000 miles per hour.

Brush Up Your Camera Skills: to capture Perseids on film, be prepared and do your research. Meteor showers, albeit spectacular, prove challenging to photograph for both amateur and expert photographers. Any night photography requires special skills. Don’t expect to just point and shoot to get the perfect image. Pay attention to your camera’s capabilities, lens, settings, battery capacity, shooting technique and recommended accessories (tripod, shutter release), etc.

Eagle County-based professional photo- grapher Rick Spitzer provides the image for this article and some basic tips:

“You need a DSLR, 50mm lens or shorter, tripod and intervalometer. Place camera on tripod. Set camera to the bulb setting, generally pointed east/northeast. Set intervalometer for 30 seconds, continuous images, lowest f-stop. I recommend using f/4 and ISO 3200. Shoot from hour after sunset to hour before sunrise. Then select tracks in each image and convert background to black. Finally, those images and one image with stars and foreground are stacked in Photoshop; blend layers using ‘Lighten.’”

STAY TUNED

Looking ahead, the late Finnish meteor astronomer Esko Lyytinen predicts that Perseids may put on an exceptionally strong performance in 2028. Again, in that year on August 12-13, as the Earth passes within 37,000 miles of a debris stream from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the effect may produce a meteor storm, with 1,000 meteors per hour or more.

Comet Swift-Tuttle, discovered in 1862, is the largest object known to repeatedly pass our planet Earth. On its most recent pass in 1992, it was too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

Its next appearance, in 2126, should be more visible (good luck with that!).

Enjoy shower splendor 2024!

Originally published in the Summer 2024 issue of Spoke+Blossom.