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12th August 2023
02:47pm BST
The sky over the UK is to be lit up by up to 100 shooting stars tonight, as the height of the Perseid meteor shower occurs.
Known as one of the annual highlights of the stargazing calendar, debris from the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle will result in hundreds of bright meteors illuminating Irish skies.
According to The Guardian, this year's Perseid meteor shower will be all the more impressive, as the moon is out of the way, making for perfect viewing conditions.
Asking the public for their help in observing the shower, onlookers are urged to count the amount of meteors they see every 15 minutes for a special report that will appear in the organisation's magazine.
An image of the 2019 Perseid meteor shower. (Credit: Getty Images)
Derek Smale, the UK Space Agency’s programme manager for the ESA space safety and security programme, said: “The peak is expected to be Saturday night into Sunday but if anybody fancies a late night on Sunday night into Monday morning, it’ll probably still be very good.”
Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) offered additional advice on how best to experience tonight's shower, saying, "Give your eyes at least 15 minutes to adjust to the dark so that you can catch more of the fainter meteors."
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