There’s An Incredible Meteor Shower Happening This Summer And Vermont Has A Front Row Seat
You might catch sight of a shooting star once in a while if you’re lucky, but have you ever seen a whole sky filled with streaking stars? A brilliant meteor shower is coming to Vermont this summer and it’s shaping up to be an astronomical delight. Here’s how and when to see it.
The Perseid meteor shower is an annual event that sees the sky sparkle with hundreds of "shooting stars" or meteors. Meteors aren’t actually all that rare – watching the sky for a few hours on most nights will let you catch a glimpse of one or two – but there are only a few times a year when you can enjoy sky full of them.
This year’s Perseid meteor shower will take place late on August 12 and extend into the early hours of August 13. In Vermont, experts are predicting that the best time to see the shower will be in the hours just before dawn on the 13th. At its peak, the shower is expected to include about 90 meteors per hour.
And just in case you’re wondering what a meteor actually is, here’s a quick refresher. Essentially, meteors are bits of debris falling through Earth’s atmosphere. They’re about 50 to 75 miles above the ground and seriously small; most meteors are only about as large as a grain of rice. The light they give off is a result of the superheated air around the debris rapidly cooling.
Unfortunately, there is a chance that strong moonlight may interfere with the viewing of this meteor shower. Though you might think that a bright night would make it easier to spot things in the sky, the opposite is actually true. Your best chance for seeing this shower at its finest will be to head somewhere with low light pollution. If you live in town, that likely means heading out to the country.
This year’s Perseid meteor shower will take place on August 12 and August 13. To learn more about when to catch the 2019 Perseid meteor shower in Vermont, click here. If you’re looking for an adventure you can have all year long, check out this stunning Vermont park.
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