perseid-meteor

B.C. sky gazers gear up for meteor shower
The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak on Thursday night, but viewers in Canada are expected to see a light show as early as Wednesday.

About 100 meteors per hour can be seen streaking across the sky during the shower’s peak, which NASA astronomers say will be just after 10 p.m. Thursday.

Sky gazers in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, however, are gearing up for a light show on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of people gather each year at Aldergrove Lake Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower.

But this year, the haze from the hundreds of forest fires burning in B.C., along with potential cloud cover, are threatening the view.

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“We have usually 200 or 300 people that will come out,” said Pomponia Martinez with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“Hopefully the sky will be clear enough to actually see these meteorites. Of course, if we have a lot of cloud cover, you really won’t be able to see much and it’ll be disappointing.”

Martinez said if the weather is good, the light display is dazzling, with about 50 meteors per hour shooting across the sky at its peak.

NASA astronomers recommend watching the shower between 10 p.m. and dawn on Thursday, when both the moon and the constellation Perseus are low on the horizon, though the number of meteors will be fewer than at the shower’s apex.