Just hours after Wednesday’s solar eclipse, sky watchers in Germany were treated to another celestial spectacle as the Perseid meteor shower, one of the most spectacular of the year, reached its peak overnight.
Up to 100 meteors per hour were expected to streak across the sky in dark locations, with viewing conditions particularly favourable this year as the peak coincided with a new moon.
With no bright moonlight to obscure the display, largely clear skies also offered good viewing conditions across much of Germany. Only parts of the north were affected by patches of high cloud, according to the German Weather Service (DWD).
Shooting stars were visible even in light-polluted Berlin before 11 pm (2100 GMT), said Tim Florian Horn, director of the city’s Zeiss Major Planetarium.
Several meteors had already been spotted despite the city’s bright lights, he told dpa, as visitors gathered in an open area next to the planetarium to watch the display.
“Every shooting star is greeted with loud oohs and aahs,” Horn said.
The Perseids had already been visible in the nights leading up to their peak and should remain plentiful over the coming nights in good weather, Horn said. Activity will gradually decline before the meteor shower ends on August 24.
The Perseids originate from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Earth passes through the stream of tiny particles the comet has left behind along its orbit around the Sun.
When the particles enter Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up, creating the bright streaks seen across the night sky.
The Perseids are fast meteors, entering the atmosphere at around 60 kilometres per second. Some can appear as exceptionally bright fireballs, occasionally reaching the brightness of Venus.