Perseid Meteor Shower 2012: Annual 'Shooting Star' Show Hits The Night Sky This Weekend: 11PM-5AM

Sky Map. Click to enlarge

This weekend's biggest show is in the sky! When: Aug 10-12, 2012 11PM-Dawn Where: Northeast Sky, 25' degrees above horizon

Grab a lawn chair and a blanket -- and watch the show!

The Perseid Meteor Shower 2012 hits its stride this weekend, late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. And what stride it will be: according to NASA, expect up to 100 meteors per hour. As an extra bonus, a waning crescent moon means that moonlight won’t completely overwhelm the meteors as they shoot across the sky. (Tips for best viewing below.)

The source of the Perseid meteor shower is actually debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Every year, the earth passes through the debris cloud left by the comet

Download your free August 2012 Evening Sky Map here.

If you plan to stay up and watch the awesome spectacle here's a few tips:

• The darker the better. Although visible everywhere, away from city lights the shower is best.
• If you don't see any meteors at first, be patient. This is a meteor shower, not a meteor storm. There will be a lot more meteors than you would see on a normal night, but they will still only come at random intervals, perhaps 20 or 30 in an hour.
• When you do see a meteor, it will likely be very fast and at the edge of your field of vision. You may even doubt that what you saw was real. But, when you do see something, watch that area more closely, as two or three meteors often come in groups,

Enjoy the show!