By Peninsula Daily News and news services
PORT ANGELES — Pray for clear skies.
The Perseid meteor shower is one of nature’s most spectacular light shows, and it’s happening this weekend.
The annual meteor shower will peak tonight into the dawn of Monday morning, and at the height of the shower, you can expect to see 100 meteors an hour.
This year, the moon is your friend and will appear as a thin crescent that shouldn’t spoil your view of the shooting stars.
And just to make you extra excited, NASA recently declared the Perseids the fireball champion of the meteor showers — meaning it has the brightest meteors of all the annual showers.
The best way to see the Perseids is to bundle up, find a dark patch of sky, sit up a chair or lie down on a blanket — and look up.
Although some of the brightest meteors will still be visible even in lighted residential areas across the North Olympic Peninsula, one of the best places to catch the Perseid show is Hurricane Ridge, and at the parking turnouts on the 17-mile highway up to the Ridge.
The meteor shower will emanate from the northeastern sky, so make sure you have a clear view of that piece of sky with nothing obstructing it.
There is a live broadcast of the skies over Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., by NASA that’s an alternative for stargazers caught with bad weather or light-polluted night skies: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/perseids_2013.html.
The camera activates at full dusk (approx. 6 p.m. PDT). During the day you will either see a dark gray box or pre-recorded footage.
