Perseid Meteor Shower 2019: How to see it in Michigan this week

DETROIT – The annual Perseid Meteor Shower is set to light up the sky this week!

Here's what you need to know:

When is the 2019 Perseid Meteor Shower?

The meteor shower will peak on the nights of  August 11-12 and August 12-13.

More from EarthSky.org:

No matter where you live worldwide, the 2019 Perseid meteor shower will probably produce the greatest number of meteors on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13. Unfortunately, on the peak mornings in 2019, a bright moon will drown many Perseids from view. For those serious about seeing the greatest number of Perseids in 2019, we recommend viewing several mornings in a row, beginning the weekend of Friday, August 9, to Sunday, August 11. There will be considerably more moon-free viewing time then than at the Perseids’ likely peak from late evening August 12 until dawn August 13.

Where can I see them in Metro Detroit?

Well, it's not impossible to see them if you're in Detroit, but your best chance is to head out to the suburbs.

Here's more from Space.com: The key to seeing a meteor shower is "to take in as much sky as possible," Cooke said. Go to a dark area, in the suburbs or countryside, and prepare to sit outside for a few hours. It takes about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, and the longer you wait outside, the more you'll see. A rate of 150 meteors per hour, for instance, means two to three meteors per minute, including faint streaks along with bright, fireball-generating ones.

So what are meteors?

Actually, they are technically called meteoroids. Surprisingly, most meteoroids are little pieces of rock from space that are about as big as a single grape nuts cereal nugget! They hit our atmosphere fifty to seventy-five miles up at an astounding 25,000 to 160,000 mph (evening meteoroids tend to be slower than ones that arrive in the late night hours).

When the meteoroid collides with air molecules, its high level of kinetic energy rapidly ionizes and excites a long, thin column of atmospheric atoms along the meteoroid's path, creating a flash of light visible from the ground below. This column, or meteor trail, is usually less than a yard in diameter, but will be tens of miles long.

Annual meteor showers like the Perseids occur because the earth passes through the stream of debris leftover when comets flew by a long time ago (the debris trail that we're passing through now is from Comet Swift-Tuttle). 


About the Authors:

Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.