It should be all eyes to the sky Thursday night as the National Weather Service in Duluth says the weather conditions across the Northland should provide great views of the Perseid Meteor Shower.

They report that a combination of clear skies and cool temperatures will help to provide quite a show once the sun sets on August 12, but you may have to stay up late, well into the wee hours of Friday morning, to get the most out of this opportunity.

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The Perseids are considered the best meteor shower of the year with as many as 50-100 meteors seen per hour at their peak! To get the most out of the experience, here are some handy meteor shower viewing tips, courtesy of NASA:

  • Usually are best viewed during the pre-dawn hours, but sometimes appear as early as 10:00 p.m. The best viewing tends to be from midnight to dawn.
  • Find somewhere comfortable with a wide view of the sky. Even better if you have a chair or a comfortable blanket. It also can't hurt to have your favorite beverage (okay, I added that one).
  • Avoid bright light as much as possible. This includes your phone!
  • Make sure to give your eyes up to a half hour of darkness to adjust

What exactly is a "Perseid", you ask? Well, according to NASA, "the Perseids are fragments of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits between the Sun and beyond the orbit of Pluto once every 133 years. Every year, the Earth passes near the path of the comet, and the debris left behind by Swift-Tuttle shows up as meteors in our sky." NASA adds that there's not chance that we’ll run into the actual comet anytime soon, so no need to prepare your bunker and prepare for a zombie apocalypse.

The video below goes into plenty of detail to help build up your anticipation for it all.

Whether you're up all night, or decide to set an alarm for 3:00 a.m., enjoy the show! If you capture any great pictures of your experience, we'd love to see it!  You can always upload pictures to share with us through our app. Just look for the "Submit Media" button in the upper left-hand corner.

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