Many comets have traveled around the sun many times, leaving streams of tiny particles in their orbits. Each year, the Earth goes through those orbits at the same date. Each August 12, the Earth goes through the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the 107th periodic comet in the catalogue of comets. The tiny particles of comet dust hit our atmosphere, where they burn up. From the ground, we see these vaporizing bits of dust as meteors. Each one lasts a few seconds. The August 12 set of meteor trails appears to come from the comet Perseus, so it is known as the Perseids. If you go to a dark site, far from city lights, and just look up, you will see flashes of meteors across the sky as often as one per second or so. But it is not predictable just where in the sky you will see these flashes, so you wouldn't know where to point a telescope. The best way to see a meteor shower is just to lie back on a lawn chair and to look up, waiting to see what catches your eye.

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