The Perseids are coming! The Perseids are coming! The annual Perseid meteor shower will return in mid August – and with no moon to compete with this year, they could be fantastic, IF… you have prepared a little before the big show, and found a good spot to watch them.
It happens every August: kids head back to school, the Hot August Nites car show goes on in Reno, my mom and daughter celebrate their birthdays, and the Perseid Meteor Shower sends thousands of shooting stars across the nighttime sky. It will peak on the night of August 12-13, as usual. But watching this big show isn’t as simple as walking out your front door and looking up – a little homework will go a long way here.
1. Light Pollution is real, and it isn’t spectacular: This is the big one. There are a LOT of nighttime lights in the San Joaquin Valley, and their brightness will wipe out all but the brightest shooting stars. Even if you drive someplace remote in the Valley, you’re still not that far from the lights of some town or city, and that’s not good at all for stargazing. At the darkest, most remote spot in the Valley you’d still only see about half the show – check out a map of our light pollution here. If you’re in a moderate sized city (like Visalia, Clovis, Merced, Hanford or Tulare), light pollution will block out around 75% of the meteor shower. And if you’re in downtown Fresno, forget it – about 90% of the shooting stars will be too faint to see…