It’s that time of year again – the Perseid Meteor Shower Lottery is upon us! Will we see some meteors, or a LOT of meteors? Or will the curse strike us again? This year, we don’t have the almost-full Moon making things worse and the weather might even play along in our location here in Midwest Germany. The Perseids will peak on August 12 in the early Evening CEST, so the night from the 12th to the 13th will probably be the best chance to look for meteors, but generally the few days around the peak date are usually good too.

It looks like we might at least be able to watch, because it isn’t so unseasonably cold at night like last year, but there is some light cloud cover that might get in the way. Although I have a new camera this year, I’m not sure I will be able to catch meteors with it – but if the sky is clear, I might try it. The only time I ever caught a Perseid meteor was in 2008 – I’ve been using that particular photo for all my Perseid posts.

[Update 8/16: The weather has now completely turned and there is no chance anymore of seeing the sky in the next days. We actually saw a tiny handful of shooting stars on the night of the 12th, which was a considerable improvement from the last year, but nowhere near the spectacle promised by the media!]

If your weather looks good and you want to try watching, here are the usual links: If you want to know more about the Perseids, Universe Today has a really good Observer’s Guide written by David Dickinson and Fraser Cain’s  short explainer video about meteors in general is also very recommended. In short, if you have a reasonably clear view of the sky to the east and northeast, you are all set to go! You don’t even need any fancy equipment, just your eyes are enough :-).