Things to do: Watch the Perseids Meteor Shower

The annual Perseids meteor shower will peak this week - and everyone can expect a bright show this year. 

The best time to get out there and see them is Wednesday night into Thursday morning, after midnight locally. You'll need to find a place with a wide-open sky and then just lay back and look up! You'll soon have the best seat to witness up to 60 shooting stars per hour.

Telescopes need not apply for this meteor shower--the shooting stars are expected to fly by at a pace of one per minute coming from the direction of the Cassiopeia and Perseus constellations in the northeast. 

Make a cozy seat
Instead of lounging about on a patch of grass to watch the meteor shower, here are a few ways to enjoy some comfortable outdoor seating while you gaze upon the stars. 

An inflatable pool is a simple way to shield yourself from bug bites and other nasty critters while you're star gazing tonight. Inflate the kiddie pool and then fill it with blankets and pillows to create a cozy lounge area. 

If you have a pick-up truck, fill up the truck bed with blankets and pillows for a similar cozy seating area that is also mobile. 

What is a meteor shower anyway?

Just for educational purposes, a meteor shower occurs when the Earth is orbiting around the Sun (as it always does) and travels through debris leftover by a comet or asteroid (or any other bit of dust and gravel) that is also orbiting the Sun. Because comets are basically just bits of rock and dust held together by water and ice, as it passes the Sun the ice melts and turns directly to gas and the rocky bits fall off. Since the comet is orbiting the Sun in the same path as Earth, as it passes near Earth they enter our atmosphere, speed up, heat up and glow. 

The Perseids are specifically debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 130 years and Earth crosses its path in August. 

The more you know.