BBC Sky at Night - UK (2021-08)

32 BBC Sky at Night Magazine August 2021

Þ Some Perseids

can be incredibly

bright, lighting

up the sky with a

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fairly faint – not all meteors are alike after all. The

faint ones will be hidden from observing sites with

bright lights in view, changing the visual impact of

the ‘shower’ quite dramatically. One of the key things

we can do as observers to get the best experience

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as possible when viewing the shower; this doesn’t

necessarily mean travelling to a dark-sky site – it

could just be trying to keep nearby street and house

lights out of your line of sight. Of course your safety is

important too, so it’s a good idea to have a torch with

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Before you start observing it’s important to let

your eyes adapt to the darkness, just as you would

if you were doing any other kind of visual observing

of faint objects. Let your eyes adjust to the dark for

a minimum of 30-40 minutes, and you’ll be able to

glimpse much fainter meteors when they appear.

Make yourself comfortable

Perhaps the most important consideration for meteor

observing is comfort. You need to put in a decent

amount of time to really be in with a chance of seeing

a good number of meteors, so you’ll naturally want

to wrap up warm, with good thermals and a warm,

waterproof coat, if you have them. And keep your

feet warm too as the cold can really creep up through

the ground even on a warm summer night if you’re

standing still for long periods; insulated snow boots

are great for combating this.

Ideally you’d want to lie back to view the stars,

so that you can see a large swathe of sky without

straining your neck; while the beauty of meteor

observing is that you don’t need any dedicated

equipment, one of the best investments towards your

overall enjoyment of a meteor shower is a reclining

camp chair or sun lounger. With a setup like this, and

with a rug over you and a warm drink to hand, meteor

watching – especially with friends – becomes a delight.

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Perseids you might expect to see this month (see box,

opposite). This is always going to be an estimated

average rate as there will usually be natural lulls

interspersed with more active periods in a typical

meteor-watching session. It’s often fun to observe in

a group because of this, not just because you get a

party atmosphere as you share in the excitement, but

Wrap up warm and recline

on a sun lounger for the

perfect Perseid experience

Let your eyes adjust

to the dark for 30–40

minutes, and you’ll

be able to glimpse

much fainter meteors

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