Perseid meteor shower provides a breathtaking sight of bright meteors

The Perseid meteor shower peak for 2024 will be on August 12, from about 16.00 to 19.00, i.e. during the day for Bulgaria.

Images by BTA

This year more than 50 "shooting stars" are expected per hour.

However, sightings may take place on the nights of 11 vs 12 August and 12 vs 13 August. On the first of these dates, the Moon will set at 23.24 hrs for Sofia with a 42% illuminated disk, after which observing conditions will be good. On the night of August 13, the Moon will set at 23.50 with 52% illuminated disk (first quarter phase) and the viewing conditions after that will also be good, says Pencho Markishki, a physicist from the Department of Astronomy at the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University and the Institute of Astronomy at the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

The best view of the Perseids meteor shower was from the Northern Hemisphere.

Perseid meteoroids are incredibly fast, entering Earth's atmosphere as meteors at approximately 59 kilometers per second. When a Perseid particle enters the atmosphere, it compresses the air in front of it, which heats up. The meteor, in turn, can be heated to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 Celsius). The intense heat vaporizes most meteors, creating what we call shooting stars.