Perseid meteors this weekend

Perseid meteors best seen before dawn this weekend

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Perseid meteors are showering the night sky right now, and if the full moon weren't lighting things up, Bay Area residents could see the shooting stars streaking across the darkness all night long.

But the moon won't disappear until well after midnight, so anyone who wants to see those dusty trails from an ancient comet as they flash for an instant entering Earth's atmosphere will have to stay up all night or arise before dawn.

"It's a good year to watch for the Perseids," said astronomer Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center, "but not while the moon is full and its light drowns out the sky. But the moon will be out of the way before dawn, and that's when the meteors will be most visible."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/11/BADS1KLR3G.DTL&tsp=1

The Perseid meteors will show up best in the Bay Area sky from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. Friday and between 4:30 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. on Saturday, Jenniskens said. Between 30 and 50 meteors should be visible then - but only in the darkness outside the city.