Hundreds of meteors will soon paint the sky: peak hours & where to watch in Oregon

In less than a week, you can see as many as 50-100 meteors per hour! The Perseid Meteor Shower (or "The Perseids") is considered one of the best meteor showers of the year, according to NASA . Each year, Earth passes through a trail of debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle . When that space debris enters Earth’s atmosphere, bits of it disintegrate, creating the Perseid meteor shower. Peaking in mid-August, the Perseids contain fireballs - very bright meteors (reaching a visual magnitude of -3 or brighter, if you want to get technical) from larger particles of cometary material. While the Perseids started in mid-July, the best time to see them is overnight on August 12-13. On Wednesday, the new moon phase begins, where the moon sits between the Earth and the sun, with the dark side of the moon facing Earth. Since there’s no sunlight to reflect towards Earth, there is limited visibility of the moon during this phase (which means darker skies to see the Perseids!) Fun fact: The Perseids appear to come from the constellation " Perseus ," named after the Greek hero Perseus who, in Greek mythology, famously killed Medusa and rescued Andromeda. WHERE TO WATCH OMSI hosts its Perseid Meteor Shower Watch on Wednesday, August 12 at both the L.L. Stub Stewart State Park and Rooster Rock State Park.