A reminder to those of you interested in astronomy and astrophotography that for the next two days the annual Perseid meteor shower will be at its peak. And this year should be especially spectacular as there is not going to be a moon to ruin the darkness, and in this part of the world the skies are supposed to be cloud free.

The Perseids are an annual meteor shower, formed by the debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle. Every 133 years this comet passes through our solar system, and leaves behind a cloud of dust and small rocks. Each year from mid-July to mid-August, the Earth passes through this debris field and collides with many of the small rocks. When a rock hits the atmosphere, the friction with the air causes it to heat up and burn brightly, appearing to observers to be shooting stars. And since the meteors look to observers to be travelling radially away from the Perseus constellation, they are named the Perseids or "sons-of-Perseus" (although in reality they have no connection to Perseus, and this is just an illusion).

With the anticipated clear skies and if you are lucky enough to be in a region with minimal light pollution, observers can expect to see a maximum of about seventy events per hour, primarily in the northern hemisphere. As with so many of these events, the best time should be in the pre-dawn hours, but they should be visible through most of the night.

So hopefully the viewing conditions are good, and we get an amazing display again this year!