One of the calendar year’s best meteor showers will be observable as early as Tuesday night in the Bay Area, with peak showers projected to take place Wednesday night and Thursday morning, according to NASA.
The Perseids are an annual meteor shower that occurs when Earth passes through a meteor stream left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle.
According to NASA, the Perseids are one of the best annual meteor showers, with 50 to 100 meteors able to be seen per hour during peak showers that leave streaks of light and color in the sky.
Astronomers are also expecting this year’s Perseids to be more visible than usual due to a new moon — when the moon is dark and almost invisible in the sky — arriving on Wednesday night that will make the sky darker than normal.
According to Andrew Fraknoi, a professor of astronomy at the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco, the two most important factors to consider when finding a location to view meteor showers are light pollution — the amount of artificial outdoor lighting in a given area — and weather.
“Find a place where the sky is clear and you can do something to get away from city lights,” said Fraknoi. “That means if you’re in your own backyard, turning off all the lights or going to a park or a woody area. Find a place where it’s dark.”
According to astronomers, Bay Area residents can watch the Perseids at any location with clear weather and minimal light pollution, though many reservation-required watch party events taking place throughout the region still have tickets available.
Watch parties in the hills
In the East Bay, Oakland’s Chabot Space and Science Center and Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, two science museums located over 1,500 feet above the Bay, will be hosting watch parties beginning Wednesday night.
The Chabot Space and Science Center’s event will begin on 11 p.m. Wednesday and end at 3 a.m. Thursday, taking place on the museum’s observation deck. The event will cost $15 for adults and $7 for kids, while being free for the museum’s members.
The Lawrence Hall of Science’s event will take place from 8-11 p.m. Wednesday, with general admission costing $27 for all attendees ages 3 and older, while being free for children ages 2 and under.
In the North Bay, the Meritage Resort and Spa located in Napa is hosting a high-end watch party on its vineyard deck on Wednesday night. The $35 event will take place from 7:30 p.m. to midnight, with attendees receiving observational guidance from local astronomers and access to a large selection of food and beverage options.
In San Francisco, there is currently no official watch parties scheduled, with Fraknoi remarking that the city is typically not the best place to watch meteor showers due to higher chances of “being overcast” due to fog or clouds.
Astronomers say the meteor showers are visible without telescopes, with Fraknoi advising people against using astronomical equipment to watch the showers since they “restrict” a view of the entire sky.
Fraknoi also advises meteor shower watchers to be patient when looking for cosmic activity, while noting that it typically takes at least 10 to 15 minutes for peoples’ eyes to adjust to the dark so that they can see the showers.
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