The Perseids are popularly known as shooting stars, but are small dust particles of different sizes, which comets leave along their orbits around the sun. When a comet approaches the inner regions of the Solar System, its core formed by ice and rock, is sublimated by the action of solar radiation and generates queues dust and gas characteristics. The current resulting particles are dispersed by the comet's orbit and is crossed every year near the Earth on its journey around the sun. The dust particles disintegrate when entering at high speed in the Earth's atmosphere, creating known bright lines that receive the scientific name of meteors.
The Perseids are the most famous meteor shower which will occur on August 13th 2015 between 01:30 am and 14:00 pm Universal Time, for an hour in the Canary Islands and for 2 hours in the Peninsula. To have a good look you could start on 12th August night till 13th August morning. The Perseids can be seen on the previous days and subsequent days too.
One can observe an estimated 100 to 120 meteors per hour on average, about two Perseids every minute.
According to information provided by Juraj Tóth responsible for the AMOS-CI (All-sky Meteor Orbit System-Canary Islands, Department of Astronomy, Physics of the Earth and Meteorology, Comenius University in Slovakia),the project to detect Perseids started in mid-July, and has seen a significant increase in activity in recent days. On August 8th it was detected that around 15 meteors per hour was observed which means that they are meeting expectations. According to Miquel Serra-Ricart, an astronomer at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), "with the Perseids cone can expect the most spectacular rain of stars, with no moon on 13th August, we can witness a good rain stars. The Perseids are few but, individually, often very spectacular, due to its high-speed entry into the atmosphere."
The Perseids are also popularly known as "Tears of St. Lawrence" after the saint. It is named Perseids because it occurs in the area of the sky which is in the constellation Perseus. It is also popular because it is intense and partly happens in the summer month of August.
For those who enjoy watching the shooting stars rain are advised not to see with their naked eye, but use a telescope or glasses of any kind. Any observation point (beach, terrace, golf, etc.) is good if it offers clear skies to the north and east and has no bright lights nearby, away form the city lights.
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