Perseid meteors are on the way

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

The best show on Earth -- in August, anyway -- is coming to Southern Nevada's skies this weekend.

August is noted for one of the top meteor showers of the year, streaming out of the constellation Perseus.

The Perseids are especially brilliant this year because the moon will set by midnight, said Daisy Polidoro of the Planetarium at the Community College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne Campus.

The best time for viewing the stardust shower is from 1 a.m. until 4 a.m. Monday, Polidoro said.

Astronomers expect to see 75 to 200 meteors an hour.

Stargazers can help astronomers count meteors, University of Nevada, Las Vegas physics professor Jeremy King said. A website (www.skyandtelescope.com) can help people learn how to do it.

Roughly two tons of rocks strike Earth every day, King said, but meteor showers are special.

"They are beautiful things," he said.

The university is also hosting the Astronomical Society of Nevada and will be having star parties to gaze at the skies, King said. That website is www.astronomynv.org/vegas.

"It's amazing," Polidoro said of the nightly spectacle, which lasts anywhere from a couple of days to a week.

The meteors -- debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle -- strikes atmosphere at very high rates of speed, producing bright meteors that seem to explode as they burn up, Polidoro said.

An average meteor enters the atmosphere traveling at 20 miles per second. Perseid's meteors typically travel at 40 miles per second.

To see the most meteors, leave Las Vegas, Polidoro advised. Try the Valley of Fire, Echo Bay on Lake Mead or Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas.

No fancy equipment is necessary; just gaze up at the sky.

For a preview of what is happening in the sky this month, the planetarium offers programs each Friday and Saturday night at the college's Cheyenne campus in North Las Vegas, Polidoro said.