The annual Perseid Meteor Shower will light up San Diego’s skies this weekend, and experts are saying it will be more visible than ever.
The best time to see the shower will be Saturday night and into Sunday morning.
The Julian Chamber of Commerce is hosting a stargazing event Saturday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.
It will be at Jess Martin Park with a free shuttle going between town and the park during the event.
Animal ambassadors and local astronomers will be there to teach you about local wildlife and the cosmos.
Comet Swift-Tuttle orbits the sun every 133 years, leaving behind a path of debris, said astrophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, Brian Keating.
Earth then travels through the debris, called “dirty snowballs” because it’s made up of ice and dust, creating a meteor shower spectacle.
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Data collected by meteorshowers.org.
The constellation Perseus for which the shower is named after is located in the northeastern skies for San Diego at this time of the year.
Keating said to look to Perseus, near the North Star, for the best view.
The moon won’t be visible this weekend, so the skies will be as dark as possible.
“This is as good as it gets,” Keating said.
Don’t use binoculars or telescopes either, Keating told NBC 7. Meteor showers are best seen with the naked eye.
During peak performance - around 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday - you might see up to a few meteors per minute, according to Keating.
If you go out this weekend, make sure to tag us on Instagram and Facebook or send us your pictures via our website or email, isee@nbcsandiego.com.
