It's that time of year again when the earth passes through the orbit of comet Tuttle-Swift, creating the Perseid Meteor shower. This year the peak of the shower is between Wed Aug 11th and Thrs Aug 12th.

Analemma Society in cooperation with the Fairfax County Parks Authority will present free public viewing of the Perseid Meteor Shower at Great Falls Turner Farm Observatory Park on Wed Aug 11th from 9pm - 1am. If the weather is cloudy and rainy, the park grounds will open the following night Thrs 12th from 9pm - 1am.

If the sky is clear, there should be excellent viewing conditions for the Perseids. The moon is only a thin waxing crescent setting in the west shortly after sunset, making late night viewing of the Persieds in the eastern sky ideal.  Come bring your lounge chairs or blankets and watch the night sky, looking for those streaks of light from pebble size remains of Comet Tuttle-Swift.

The debris left from the comet - mostly balls of ice and small pebble rock - orbits the sun every 133 years.  But the debris has spread out so that each year when the earth goes through the orbit, some of the debris rains down on the earth, creating the meteor shower.

The Perseid Meteor Shower  gets its name from the direction the meteors appear to come from: their streaks in the sky as they burn up in our atmosphere at about 90km high, trace back to the constellation Perseus.