Video: How to View the Perseid Meteor Showers

The best way to view the Perseid Meteor Showers, or any meteor shower, is to lay down so that there is a full view of the sky. Get the best view of a meteor shower with help from an astrophotographer in this free video on astronomy and meteor showers.

Video Transcript

So one of the big questions we always get throughout the year is how to observe meteor showers. Now when do we need to look for them? Where do we need to look? What do we need to use to watch them? So first off, whenever you're observing a meteor shower, you don't want to use telescopes or even binoculars because a meteor is going to be moving much too fast for you to be able to see through a telescope or binoculars. So the best way to observe it is actually just to find an open field and lay flat on your back and to where you get a full field of view of the sky and just wait for any motion in the sky. So on this program, this is simulating a meteor shower called the Perseid Meteor Shower. Now one thing you'll notice is that there's a lot of meteors being displayed. The meteor shower rates really vary from shower to shower and also from year to year. Some meteor showers are known to produce lots of meteors per hour, others are known to produce few. While others are known to produce very, very faint meteors and others are known to produce very spectacular ones, called Fire Balls. So it's really hard to predict how spectacular a meteor shower will be. You just have to go out and see for yourself basically.

How to View the Perseid Meteor Showers

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