The Perseid meteor shower will illuminate the sky from the evening of Sunday, August 12, 2018, till dawn of Monday, August 13. The people living in Northern Hemisphere including Qatar will have a good chance to see and observe the shower, says Dr. Beshir Marzouk, an expert at Qatar Calendar House.

Perseid meteor shower is usually active every year from July 23 till August 24, while its peak will be starting from the evening of August 12, till dawn of August 13. Moreover, Perseid meteor shower is one of importance seen from Earth, where the average rate of showers flow will be 100 Perseid meteors per hour, says Dr Marzouk.

Those in the Northern Hemisphere don’t need an astronomical instrumentation to see the shower because they are visible for the naked eye from places without light and environment pollution. Choose a darker place and look northeast direction of the sky is all needed. Recent digital cameras, with increased exposure time can capture the best photos of the event. The best time for observing Perseid meteor shower is at midnight till dawn, while the best location is darker ones without light and environmental pollution.

Astronomers and amateurs will have a good chance to observing Perseid meteor this year because the age of Moon will be 2 days old at the peak time of the shower, so the Moon will not appear on the sky during night time. The set time of Moon will be at 7:12 PM Doha local time.

Here’s a NASA explanation for the inclined. The link has animation of Perseid meteor shower:

Where do Perseid meteors come from? Mostly small bits of stony grit, Perseid meteoroids were once expelled from Comet Swift-Tuttle and continue to follow this comet’s orbit as they slowly disperse. The featured animation depicts the entire meteoroid stream as it orbits our Sun. When the Earth nears this stream, as it does every year, the Perseid Meteor Shower occurs. Highlighted as bright in the animation, comet debris this size is usually so dim it is practically undetectable. Only a small fraction of this debris will enter the Earth’s atmosphere, heat up and disintegrate brightly. This weekend promises some of the better skies to view the Perseid shower as well as other active showers because the new moon will not only be faint, it will be completely absent from the sky for most of the night. Although not outshining faint Perseids, the new moon will partially obstruct the Sun as a partial solar eclipse will be visible from some northern locations.

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