(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)
August 06, 2022 - 2:01 PM
With relatively clear skies this week, Kamloops and Okanagan residents should look up to watch the Perseid meteor shower, however the peak of the show is going to be obscured by a bright moon next week.
“We’re going to have close to a full moon around then, so that will be a bit of a problem washing out some of it anyway,” said Dr. Chris Gainor, past president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
“So you’re not going to see as many as you otherwise would see.”
Nevertheless Gainor says it’s still worth checking out.
“If you’re in a position to be skywatching, then go do it."
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Although this year’s shower isn’t expected to reach its peak until the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13, the Weather Network recommends trying to observe it now, before the moon gets too bright.
For those in the northern hemisphere, the Perseid shower happens every summer as the earth passes through a cloud of debris in the solar system. Those pieces of debris become meteors as they enter the earth’s atmosphere and burn up to create a bright streak in the sky.
If a meteor endures the earth’s atmosphere and strikes the surface, it is then a meteorite. But Gainor isn’t aware of that happening any more frequently during meteor showers.
At its peak, the shower can generate up to 100 meteors per hour, according to NASA.
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