The Best Meteor Shower of the Year Starts This Week in the Hudson Valley

We've already had supermoons, an eclipse, and now an event NASA calls "the best meteor shower of the year" is set to kick off across the Hudson Valley and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. Fox is reporting that the Perseid meteor shower starts Wednesday night, and will be active through until August 24. Fox says that the best time to see the meteor shower be between midnight and dawn, August 11, 12 and 13.

The Perseids are the dust remnants of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which is the largest object to pass Earth. Earth passes through the comet's path every mid July to late August, which leads to the countless dusty particles and pieces entering the planet's atmosphere. On average, during the peak times, you can see anywhere from 12 to 60 meteors per hour. Some years, such as 2016, saw about 150 to 200 meteors an hour.

NASA says that Swift-Tuttle takes 133 years to orbit the Sun. Scientists say the meteors will be visible with the naked eye, so all you'll need to do is be away from any sort of city light. The one big issue across the Hudson Valley this summer is weather. The month of July has been plagued with cloudy skies and a near constant threat for rain and thunderstorms. The extended forecast this week for the area is calling for even more chances of scattered thunderstorms, especially during the evening hours. But, we still have over a month ahead to see.

However, this will still be a much bigger event for sky watchers than the Eta Aquarids back in May, where an average of only around 10 meteors could be seen an hour.