Perseids best viewed Aug. 12-13 after midnight

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Meteor showers are the subject of romantic poetry, and many a wish has been laid upon a shooting star. They have been the subject of disaster movies as well. The falling stardust may very well have brought the chemicals of life to Earth as well.

This week, Kokomo and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere will experience one of the more spectacular meteor showers on the calendar. The Perseid meteor shower is taking place now and will peak on Aug. 12-13.

This week is the best chance all year for viewing a shooting star without freezing outdoors, and Dr. Patrick Motl, Dean of the School of Sciences and Professor of Physics at Indiana University Kokomo, will be out there watching along with thousands of other stargazers.

“Ordinarily, this is a really great meteor shower,” said Motl. “It's a good time of year for us. The darker skies you can get, the better it'll be, but you'll still catch the bright ones in the city. But the moon phase is not great for this one because I think we are headed past full moon to third quarter waning.”

Motl said he typically can observe the shower simply by laying on the trampoline in his backyard. Best viewing takes place after midnight and continues toward dawn.

On average, viewers can expect to see at least one shooting star every 10 minutes in the city. There are many more actually entering the atmosphere – as many as 120 per hour, depending on timeframe -- but city lights, distraction, and even impatience can greatly hamper the chances of seeing them.

Of course, the darker it is, the better one’s chances are of viewing the meteors. Motl said that eyes need to adjust to low-light conditions to best see a shooting star. Even something as dim as a cellphone screen can and will reduce the ability to view the event.

Successful viewing also relies on viewing position. Motl explained that binoculars and telescopes do not aid viewing. The best experience comes from having a wide field of view of the night sky and facing the right direction.

The shower appears to originate from the star constellation Perseus, which lends its name to the meteors. The star map included with this article shows the night sky as it should appear to those facing the shower.

The meteors will appear to enter the atmosphere from the northeast, and the best position for viewing is to center one’s field of vision on the constellation Andromeda, just east of Perseus. Motl suggested that viewers use the constellation Cassiopeia as a guide. The “W”-shaped constellation hangs above Perseus. The shower is best visible just to the east of that.

One of the interesting things about meteor showers – and the reason why they occur at the same times of the year – is that they are the result the Earth’s movement, not the meteors.

“If you think about how the Earth is moving for any meteor shower, you are on the part of the Earth that's rotating into the swarm,” said Motl. “It’s just like when you're driving down the road in the summertime and you see all the bugs hitting the windshield. It’s because of the motion of the car through the bugs. It's the same thing with the Earth moving through this debris field from a comet.”

To continue the analogy, the meteors entering the atmosphere and putting on a show typically aren’t any bigger than the bugs hitting the windshield. In fact, many of them are no larger than a gnat.

“If you see that flash of light in the sky, you're talking about a meteor the size of a grain of sand or maybe as large as a pea,” said Motl.

The light show is a function of speed, not size. The motes of comet material are striking Earth’s atmosphere at a speed ranging from 25,000 miles per hour to as fast as 160,000 miles per hour. The compressed air caused by entry heats up the meteoroid until it ignites and disintegrates in a bright streak across the sky.

People are fortunate that meteors typically are no larger than sand. When a larger one arrives, tragedy can follow. The Chelyabinsk meteor that struck Russia in 2013 was 65 feet in diameter and hit like a 440-kiloton bomb. There was extensive property damage and injuries to more than 1,600 people.

Fortunately, the Perseids aren't really any larger than a baseball, at most.

If the Perseids ignite some passion about astronomy, there are more opportunities to experience the wonders of space right here in Kokomo. Dr. Motl opens the IU Kokomo observatory to the general public on the second Sunday evening of each month during the school year, and each open house features a new topic of discussion.

The first observatory evening of the 2025-26 season takes place Sun., Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. at the observatory, 2660 S. Washington St. And those who attend will have an opportunity to view the night sky with the observatory’s two telescopes, weather permitting.