The Perseids, one of the year's best meteor showers, reaches its peak over Wyoming on Tuesday morning. As always, people in the Cowboy State have a great spot to see it, but will need more than that if they want to preserve it for posterity.
While the window to see the Perseids ranges from mid-July through the beginning of September, this week is when it peaks over Wyoming. And the best time for spectators is usually the early morning hours of Aug. 13.
That's the meatiest portion of the meteor shower for astro-enthusiasts like Pinedale photographer Dave Bell.
"It's a lot of luck," he said about getting photos of the little streaks on light created by the meteors. "I was hoping to get a meteor streaking through the aurora (last night), but I waited and waited and only saw two or three meteors the whole night, and that was at the peak. It truly is a lot of luck."
Tears Of St. Lawrence
The Perseids is one of the most prolific meteor showers visible from Earth. Max Gilbraith, the planetarium coordinator for the University of Wyoming, said the celestial event is named after their point of origin as seen in the night sky.
"All the meteors seem to radiate from and streak out from the constellation of Perseus," he said. "It's not that you need to look toward Perseus to see them, it's just that if you were to track each meteor trail, they would seem to originate near the constellation."
The actual source of the Perseids is Comet Swift–Tuttle, a 16-mile-wide comet discovered in 1862. Even though its meteor shower is one of the best from our earthly perspective, the comet won't be visible to the naked eye until its next visit in 2126.
While there's a month-and-a-half window to see the Perseids, they historically peak Aug. 12 and 13, according to NASA. The peak can be between 50 and 100 meteors every hour.
The Perseids are also noted for being particularly dramatic. Meteors often leave long "wakes" of light and color, with occasional explosions of light called fireballs.
"The meteor shower used to be called the Tears of St. Lawrence because it happened on St. Lawrence's feast day on the calendar," Gilbraith said.
Perseid Perspectives
Unlike other celestial events like the Parade of Planets and the much-anticipated but yet-to-arrive nova of Corona Borealis, Wyomingites won't need any special equipment or know-how to enjoy the Perseids. All that's needed is a good spot and a dark sky.
"The best way to see the most meteors is to have the widest field of view of the sky," Gilbraith said. "You want to keep your field of vision as wide as possible.
“Using a telescope or binoculars doesn't allow you to do that all the time, but you can use them to glance at things across the Milky Way as you're waiting for meteors to come through."
Both Gilbraith and Bell said the best chances of seeing and photographing them is from a high spot. Finding a hill or any elevated location provides a wide field of view and can help avoid the bothersome source of light in the sky that night.
Gilbraith said the moon would set around 11:16 p.m. Monday, fully immersing Wyoming in the deepest darkness of the night. That's the ideal time to find a comfortable spot on a high spot and watch for the wakes of the Perseids.
"My recommendation is to have a warm sleeping pad and sleeping bag, lie down flat on the ground so you get the wide field of the whole sky, and let the show dazzle you," he said.
Perseid Photo-Ops
Seeing the Perseids is simple enough while photographing them is much more challenging. Even experienced astrophotographers rely on their own instincts and luck to get the best shots.
Bell said the key to a good Perseids photo is a fast lens. He'll spend Tuesday morning switching between his 14 mm, 21 mm, and 35 mm lenses because faster is always better with meteors.
"You've got to have a fast lens, 1.4 or 1.8 aperture, capable of quickly gathering as much light as possible," he said. "More light means better opportunities to get something that's going to be really clear."
Focus is always a challenge for Bell and many others. Even the fastest lens available need to be focused to infinity to get the right setting for meteors.
"You need to try to focus on a bright star or a bright object in the distance and manually focus the lens to as clear a setting as you can get," he said.
There's a unique opportunity awaiting astrophotographers to capture the Perseids. Bell said the Milky Way will be perfectly positioned for a series of stunning shots.
"The Milky Way is running north-south right now," he said. "There should be opportunities to capture meteors streaking past the Milky Way, and that's always cool."
It'll take more than an iPhone to get a good photo of the Perseids, but Bell believes the extra effort is worth it.
"It's a challenge to be sure, but it's worth spending time to master," he said.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
