A unique spectacle in the sky is expected to be given again this August by the Perseidsthe most spectacular summer shower of “shooting stars” that will peak on the evening of Monday, August 12.

Without needing any equipment, only patience for our eyes to get used to the dark and spot the shooting stars, and after choosing the right location without lighting, we can observe the Perseid shower, which will compensate us by offering us a unique spectacle.

The phenomenon occurs every year at the same time, from July 17 to August 24, and peaks around the same date. This year the maximum of the Perseid shower will be observed on the night of August 12-13, when the shooting stars will appear with greater frequency.

The two major variables of the phenomenon are the weather, which in Greece is good during this period, and the phase of the Moon. Importantly, this year the moon, although it will be 50% illuminated, will set around midnight, so the dark sky will help to see many more meteors than in other years.

“After the setting of the moon, the sky is ours for the observation of the Perseids,” the astrophysicist in Thisios Visitor Center of the National Observatory of Athens, Fiori-Anastasia Metallenou.

The advice given by Mrs. Metallenou for the best observation of the phenomenon is to be in a dark place, away from the city lights, so that we can see the sky dark. We will look at the sky with the naked eye, and it is best to turn our gaze towards the constellation Perseus, from which the rain of the Perseids seems to proceed, “though generally looking at the sky at any point, because the night will be dark, we will we have the ability to see shooting stars,” he adds.

Shooting stars or meteors are any luminous phenomenon that occurs within the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of small particles entering it at high speed, usually about 60 kilometers per second. Pieces of debris are heated by friction with the air and are usually destroyed in less than a second, at an altitude of more than 80 km. The superheated air around the meteor glows briefly and is visible from the ground as a bright streak known as a “shooting star.”

During the year we observe several meteor showers, the names of which derive from the constellation from which they appear to originate. The Perseids, one of the most spectacular showers of the year, are named after the constellation Perseus, from which they appear to originate. They are due to remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle ranging in size from 0.1 millimeters to a few centimeters. This comet is the largest known celestial body to pass by Earth at regular intervals and takes about 133 years to make a complete orbit around the Sun. Its last close pass by Earth was in 1992 and the next one is expected in 2126.