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 No matter where you live worldwide, the 2018 Perseid meteor shower will probably produce the greatest number of meteors on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13. In a dark, moonless sky, this annual shower often produces some 50 meteors per hour … often many more. And this year, in 2018, there’ll be no moonlight to ruin the show. 
 
 It’ll be an awesome year to watch the Perseids! 
 
 In the Northern Hemisphere, we rank the August Perseids as an all-time favorite meteor shower of every year. For us, this major shower takes place during the lazy, hazy days of summer, when many families are on vacation. And what could be more luxurious than taking a siesta in the heat of the day and watching this summertime classic in the relative coolness of night? 
 
 People tend to focus on the peak mornings of the shower and that’s entirely appropriate. But meteors in annual showers – which come from streams of debris left behind in space by comets – typically last weeks, not days. Perseid meteors have been streaking across our skies since around July 17. We’ll see Perseids for 10 days or so after the peak mornings on August 11, 12 and 13. What’s more, the Perseids tend to build up gradually, yet fall off rapidly. So this weekend is the best time to catch Perseid meteors. 
 
 After this, beginning early next week, meteor numbers will fall off rapidly. 
 
 When and how should I watch the Perseid meteor shower in 2018? The best time to watch most meteor showers is between midnight and dawn, and the Perseids are no exception. The best mornings are probably August 11, 12 and 13. The best skies are those far from city lights. 
 
 New moon is August 11, so this weekend’s skies are moon-free. 
 
 Also remember, the the Delta Aquariid meteor shower is still rambling along steadily. You’ll see mostly Perseids but also a few Delta Aquariids in the mix. 
 
 Don’t rule out early evenings, either. In a typical year, although the meteor numbers increase after midnight, the Perseid meteors still start to fly at mid-to-late evening from northerly latitudes. South of the equator, the Perseids start to streak the sky around midnight. If fortune smiles upon you, the evening hours might offer you an earthgrazer – a looooong, slow, colorful meteor traveling horizontally across the evening sky. Earthgrazer meteors are rare but memorable. Perseid earthgrazers appear before midnight, when the radiant point of the shower is close to the horizon. 
 
 General rules for Perseid-watching. No special equipment, or knowledge of the constellations, needed. 
 
 Find a dark, open sky to enjoy the show. An open sky is essential because these meteors fly across the sky in many different directions and in front of numerous constellations. 
 
 Give yourself at least an hour of observing time, for the meteors in meteor showers come in spurts and are interspersed with lulls. Remember, your eyes can take as long as 20 minutes to adapt to the darkness of night. So don’t rush the process. 
 
 Know that the meteors all come from a single point in the sky. If you trace the paths of the Perseid meteors backwards, you’d find they all come from a point in front of the constellation Perseus. Don’t worry about which stars are Perseus. Just enjoying knowing and observing that they all come from one place on the sky’s dome. 
 
 Enjoy the comfort of a reclining lawn chair. Bring along some other things you might enjoy also, like a thermos filled with a hot drink. 
 
 Remember … all good things come to those who wait. Meteors are part of nature. There’s no way to predict exactly how many you’ll see on any given night. Find a good spot, watch, wait. 
 
 You’ll see some. 
 
 What’s the source of the Perseid meteor shower? Every year, from around July 17 to August 24, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower. Debris from this comet litters the comet’s orbit, but we don’t really get into the thick of the comet rubble until after the first week of August. The bits and pieces from Comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 130,000 miles (210,000 km) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors. 
 
 If our planet happens to pass through an unusually dense clump of meteoroids – comet rubble – we’ll see an elevated number of meteors. We can always hope! 
 
 Comet Swift-Tuttle has a very eccentric – oblong – orbit that takes this comet outside the orbit of Pluto when farthest from the sun, and inside the Earth’s orbit when closest to the sun. It orbits the sun in a period of about 133 years. Every time this comet passes through the inner solar system, the sun warms and softens up the ices in the comet, causing it to release fresh comet material into its orbital stream. 
 
 Comet Swift-Tuttle last reached perihelion – closest point to the sun – in December 1992 and will do so next in July 2126. 
 
 What is the radiant point for the Perseid meteor shower? If you trace all the Perseid meteors backward, they all seem to come from the constellation Perseus, near the famous Double Cluster. Hence, the meteor shower is named in the honor of the constellation Perseus the Hero. 
 
 However, this is a chance alignment of the meteor shower radiant with the constellation Perseus. The stars in Perseus are light-years distant while these meteors burn up about 100 kilometers (60 miles) above the Earth’s surface. If any meteor survives its fiery plunge to hit the ground intact, the remaining portion is called a meteorite. Few – if any – meteors in meteor showers become meteorites, however, because of the flimsy nature of comet debris. Most meteorites are the remains of asteroids. 
 
 In ancient Greek star lore, Perseus is the son of the god Zeus and the mortal Danae. It is said that the Perseid shower commemorates the time when Zeus visited Danae, the mother of Perseus, in a shower of gold. 
 
 Bottom line: The 2018 Perseid meteor shower is expected to produce the most meteors in the predawn hours of August 11, 12, and 13. The moon is new on August 11, leaving night skies dark for meteor-watching! 
 
 Everything you need to know: Delta Aquariid meteor shower 
 
 Looking for a dark area to observe from? Check out EarthSky’s interactive, worldwide Best Places to Stargaze map. 

 There is a striking misconception going around that the 2017 Perseid meteor shower will be the "brightest shower in recorded human history" and even visible during the day. 
 
 This rumor is not true, according to NASA. 
 
 Long-awaited celestial events, such as the annual Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 12 or the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, create a lot of excitement. However, many rumors about these events get blown out of proportion, as is the case with this year's Perseids, NASA said. [Top 10 Perseid Meteor Shower Facts] 
 
 "For one thing, the Perseids never reach storm levels (thousands of meteors per hour). At best, they outburst from a normal rate [of] between 80-100 meteors per hour to a few hundred per hour," Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, said in a statement. "The best Perseid performance of which we are aware occurred back in 1993, when the peak Perseid rate topped 300 meteors per hour. Last year also saw an outburst of just over 200 meteors per hour." 
 
 The Perseid meteor shower happens every August, as the Earth passes through debris left behind from Comet Swift-Tuttle. This year's Perseids will peak on Aug. 12, when Earth encounters the densest area of the comet's dusty trail. Astronomers expect rates of about 150 meteors an hour, according to the statement. 
 
 A meteor streaks across the sky in this 30-second exposure from the Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 13, 2015, in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA 
 
 However, it will be a little harder to see the Perseids this year, Cooke said. Shortly before the shower peaks overnight, the moon will be three-quarters full, meaning its bright light will wash out many of the fainter meteors. 
 
 "A meteor every couple of minutes is good and certainly [makes it] worth going outside to look, but it is hardly the 'brightest shower in human history,'" Cooke said. "The Leonid meteor storms of the late 1990s and early 2000s were much more spectacular and had rates 10 times greater than the best Perseid display." 
 
 The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, occurring in early August. How much do you know about the celestial light show? Start the Quiz 0 of 10 questions complete 
 
 Perseid Meteor Shower Quiz: Test Your Cosmic Fireworks Smarts The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, occurring in early August. How much do you know about the celestial light show? 0 of questions complete 
 
 The Leonid meteor shower on Nov. 12, 1833, had tens of thousands — possibly even 100,000 — meteors per hour (or 20 to 30 meteors per second). For comparison, a Perseid meteor shower has about one meteor per minute under ideal conditions, according to the statement. 
 
 "The 1833 storm had a profound effect on those that witnessed it; it also gave birth to modern meteor science. Those of us who study meteors dream of such a display happening sometime within our lifetimes," Cooke said. "But it won't be caused by this year's Perseids." 
 
 Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. 

 The Perseid meteor shower, one of the best shooting star displays of the year, is set to peak on August 12. It is expected to produce up to 150 meteors per hour and will be visible across the Northern Hemisphere. 
 
 The best time to watch the shower is late on August 12, or early the following morning. Stargazers hoping to watch the event should find an area away from light pollution and get settled in a comfortable position, allowing about half an hour for their eyes to acclimatize to the dark. 
 
 Alternatively, a live broadcast of the shower will be shown via the Slooh website on August 12 from 8 p.m. Eastern time. Astronomers will discuss the Perseids and answer questions about the meteor shower over the course of the evening. 
 
 You can watch the event live below: 
 
 Visit Slooh.com to snap and share your own photos from this live event, interact with the hosts and guests, and personally control Slooh’s telescopes (Courtesy of Slooh). 
 
 Meteor showers take place when Earth passes through a comet’s debris trail. The tiny particles that are shed from the comet hit Earth’s atmosphere and are vaporized, creating bright streaks across the sky. 
 
 See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows 
 
 The Perseids is one of the more prolific meteor showers of the year, sometimes producing up to 200 meteors per hour. It is associated with the Swift-Tuttle comet, which astronomers discovered in 1862. Records of the meteor shower date back almost 2,000 years. 
 
 In a blog post about this year’s Perseids, NASA’s Bill Cooke said that reports suggesting this week’s event will be the “brightest shower in recorded human history” are not true. 
 
 “This year, we are expecting enhanced rates of about 150 per hour or so, but the increased number will be cancelled out by the bright Moon, the light of which will wash out the fainter Perseids. A meteor every couple of minutes is good, and certainly worth going outside to look, but it is hardly the ‘brightest shower in human history.’” 
 
 Dado Ruvic/Reuters 
 
 He said the best meteor show of all time was the Leonids in 1833, when there were up to 100,000 meteors per hour. “During a good Perseid shower under ideal conditions, you can see about one meteor per minute. Now imagine yourself being back in 1833, on the night of November 12. Looking outside, you would see something like 20 to 30 meteors per second,” he wrote. 
 
 “Now, that’s a meteor shower. The 1833 storm had a profound effect on those that witnessed it; it also gave birth to modern meteor science. Those of us who study meteors dream of such a display happening sometime within our lifetimes. But it won’t be caused by this year’s Perseids.”
– Last year's Perseid meteor shower was an extravaganza. Don't expect the same this year. While astronomers are expecting a decent 150 meteors per hour during peak hours between midnight and dawn on Aug. 12 and 13—a little less than the 200 per hour visible in 2016—NASA's Bill Cooke warns light from a three-quarter full moon will "wash out the fainter Perseids," resulting in a visible meteor "every couple of minutes," per Space.com. In other words, this won't be the "brightest shower in recorded human history," as some on social media have suggested, Cooke writes in a blog post. But that doesn't mean it won't be a good show, with meteors visible to viewers across the Northern Hemisphere, per Newsweek. They'll appear to come from the constellation Perseus, from which the shower gets its name. In reality, though, the meteors are a result of the Earth passing through a debris trail left by a comet, which it does every August. For your best chance at seeing meteors, head away from city lights and allow 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, NASA suggests. EarthSky notes watching from an area shaded from moonlight will also help this year. (A total solar eclipse is up next.)