Heads up! Meteor showers to look out for over the next several weeks

During these dog days of summer, expect some showers.

Meteor showers, that is.

Several meteor showers may be visible over the next several weeks on clear nights over the Sunflower State.

The headliner is the Perseids.

“That’s the big one,” said Janelle Burgardt, education coordinator for the Topeka-based Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers’ League. “The Perseids are pretty consistent showers.”

Meteor showers are visible on Earth when a celestial body, like an asteroid or a comet, leaves its debris behind in its trek through space.

“It just loses grains of sand and particles during its travel through the solar system. And these have a tendency to build up in its orbital path,” said Harold Henderson, director of the Lake Afton Observatory outside Goddard. “If that orbital path intersects the path of the Earth when the Earth is there, then we sweep them up and we see meteors.”

“The whole topic of small bodies in the solar system is kind of fascinating, and some people are just absolutely religious,” Henderson said. “If they have a chance to observe meteors from any given shower, they will make it a point to.”

The Perseids

The Perseids are one of the more popular meteor showers of the year, Henderson said.

“It’s just before school starts,” he said. “So kids are still out. They want to stay up until midnight, 1 o’clock in the morning, like kids want to do.”

You’ll most likely see meteors from the Perseids on their peak of Aug. 12 and 13, according to the American Meteor Society. But Henderson said the Perseids can be visible earlier than that.

“If you’re in really dark skies and the moon is not flooding the sky with light, anywhere from a week ahead of time until almost a week after the official peak, you’ve got a good chance at seeing the Perseid meteors,” Henderson said.

The Farpoint Observatory southwest of Topeka will host two observing nights for the Perseids on Aug. 11 and 12. The Lake Afton Observatory, which closed last August, won’t be open by that time yet. But there are nearby fields for meteor watching, Henderson said.

“People are always welcome to come out to Lake Afton Observatory and catch a meteor shower when they happen,” Henderson said. “I certainly won’t turn them away.”

Two other showers

The Perseids aren’t the only showers this time of year.

The Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids became “active” this month, according to the American Meteor Society. They will peak between July 27 and 29.

But you won’t see as many meteors with these two as the Perseids. The Delta Aquariids can be strongly visible, but they are best seen from the tropics in the Southern hemisphere. And the Alpha Capricornids are not considered a strong shower.

“In a word, they’re pathetic,” Henderson said. “As far as most Kansas astronomers are concerned, the Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids are faint, few and too far south to put much effort into.”

“(But) some people may enjoy the challenge,” he added.

Burgardt said you’ll need pretty dark skies, away from cities on nights without too much moonlight, to see the two other showers.

“You can count on them being preferable after midnight,” she said. “That’s when the dark side of the Earth turns into the debris path.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Heads up! Meteor showers to look out for over the next several weeks."