Posted: 8/15/2022 11:51:03 AM Modified: 8/15/2022 11:47:35 AM A two-month meteor shower culminated this weekend for New Hampshire residents to observe. From the night of August 12th until the early hours of Saturday, August 13th, New Hampshire residents could observe small meteors hurtling through the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 37 miles per second. According to NASA, the annual Perseid meteor shower located near the constellation Perseus in the northern hemisphere originates from a 16-mile-long comet known as Swift-Tuttle. Debris from Swift-Tuttle is still falling and passing through Earth’s atmosphere, 30 years after Earth’s last close encounter with the comet. On average, 50 to 100 meteors pass through Earth’s atmosphere every hour during the peak of the Perseids, according to NASA. However, a full moon on Friday interrupted the celestial event. According to Erik Schmitt, director of the Perkin Observatory at the Dublin School, the brightness of the full moon significantly affected the visibility of the meteor shower during its peak hours last weekend. “Unfortunately the Perseids this year coincide with a full moon, so people would only be able to see the brightest of them and not the shower of pebbles of different sizes that a meteor shower would otherwise provide,” Schmitt said. Still, New Hampshire residents had the best visibility of the meteor shower before dawn Saturday, when the radiant Perseus shower was at its highest point in the northern hemisphere. Local space enthusiast and telescope collector Charles Brault, 70, of Rindge, has been watching celestial events like the Perseids since he was 6 years old. Brault said the Monadnock area is a prime spot for Perseid viewing throughout August. “Mount Monadnock would be a great spot, but any place facing the northeast sky will do,” Brault said. The Perseids are expected to last until the end of August.
