Big Meteor Shower Coming. The Best Place To Watch In Amarillo?

I think at this point it's pretty well documented how much I enjoy these space events that have been happening lately.

We've had quite a few of them over the last year, and some that we will probably never see again in our lifetime.

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Well, guess what? We've got another one coming up that you won't want to miss!

This event will be a meteor shower, the Perseids and it's going on right now. It started back on July 14 and is going to happen until around September 1, but right now you can't really see it.

So what exactly is happening? Earth is currently passing through the debris of a comet. Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle if I'm being exact. According to Gary Boyle, The Backyard Astronomer, It's a "16-mile-wide mountain of ice, dust, and gravel that last appeared in 1992 in its 133-year orbit around the sun."

The peak nights for this meteor shower will be August 11 and 12. That is when you'll be able to see the most from it. If you don't catch it this time around, you won't catch it in your lifetime. The next time it'll return is in the year 2125, a touch over 100 years from now.

So how can we see the shower? You're going to have to be in the right place on this one without a doubt. It has something working against it, and it's called a full Sturgeon Moon. We'll have that to compete with on the night of the peak of the shower. You'll only be able to see the brighter meteors because of how bright the moon will be.

The best place to be in order to see something like this is way away from the city. Think of Palo Duro Canyon. No city lights or anything to contend with. The darker you can get, the better chance you have to see the event in its fullest glory. If you stay within the city limits, it'll be a very difficult thing to see happen.