Watch the Perseids Meteor Shower Next Week: How and Where to See It

Want to see a meteor shower? Then next week may be your chance. The Perseid meteor shower will be in full swing, and you may be able to start seeing the shooting stars as early as this weekend.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs every August, and may just rank as one of the all-time favorite meteor showers of the year. It usually puts on a spectacular show, and occurs during a time when it's not hard to stay outside for long stretches.

The meteor shower is called the "Perseids," since the meteors appear to radiate out from the constellation Perseus. Assuming that there's a clear sky, the Perseids will put on a display as they peak on the nights of Aug. 12 to Aug. 13. There will be more meteors toward the morning hours and because the moon will be waning instead of waxing, we should get to see quite a few of these meteors.

So exactly how many meteors could we see? The Royal Astronomical Society predicts that after midnight on Aug. 13, there could be as many as 90 meteors per hour. The American Meteor Society predicts that there will be about 100 meteors per hour.

These "shooting stars" are actually tiny bits of comets that hit the Earth's atmosphere, burning up and leaving a celestial trail. When Earth passes through this debris on its yearly rotation, we see a meteor shower.

In order to see the meteor shower, go out of bright city lights and find somewhere comfortable to look upward. Look at the sky in general rather than right at Perseus. You should see streaks of light flying across the sky.

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