Meteor showers are one of the most accessible astronomical shows around. They usually last several days, they can be seen by anybody with functional night vision, and they don’t need dark skies to be enjoyed. Simply lie back and watch the shooting stars! Best of all, there are many meteor showers which appear throughout the year.

But if you simply head outside and look upwards on the right date, you might find the experience a little frustrating – time will pass, you might see nothing, and eventually you head back indoors with nothing but a stiff neck for your trouble. So here are a few tips to help you along:

First, pick your spot. Pretty much anywhere that you can see the sky and count at least 20 stars will work, but ideally you want a place that has a clear view of the entire sky. Many cities have an obscured view, thanks to either tall buildings or tress (My home town has so many trees that you can’t even see the roads from the air). This can make it hard to find a good spot, but you might be able to get permission to use a school sports field, or public park. It doesn’t have to be too dark, but you want try avoid any bright lights that might shine in your eyes – so try to position yourself so that security spotlights and street lights are behind trees, or at least behind you.

The best way to see meteors is to put a blanket on the ground, and lie down so you can see the entire sky at once. Bring hot chocolate, or a flask of whiskey or something to keep warm — unless it is mid-summer in a warm part of the world, you’ll find that lying motionless for extended periods outdoors under the sky at night will chill your body much faster than you might expect. You might even find dew settling into your clothes, so take precautions.

There’s one final thing you need to take care of: your expectations. The term “Meteor Shower” is a bit of a misnomer – with very few exceptions, you shouldn’t expect to see more than one meteor every few minutes. Consult the table below to see the predicted rates for individual showers. But you can reduce the number of meteors that you miss by looking in the right direction and at the right time. Every shower is named for its radiant. If you were to draw each meteor from a particular shower on a chart of the sky, and then trace their paths backwards, those lines would all meet at a single point. This point is labeled by the nearest star, and if you’re facing it you should see most of the meteors. But don’t expect each meteor to actually start from there — they only become visible when the actual object hits the Earth’s atmosphere, which could appear quite a long way from the Radiant. Nevertheless, by focusing your gaze on the radiant, you should pick most of the meteors up in your peripheral vision. You’ll find that the number of meteors increases after midnight as well. Unless you’re collecting scientific data, watching a meteor shower can be a cold, lonely experience. I would recommend doing it with friends. You can show them the stars, share a drink and some conversation and don’t take the event too seriously. Make it a social gathering, share the night sky, and you’ll have plenty fun!

Comments? Questions? Why not mail me at uastronomer@gmail.com