Here they come. Already the post-midnight sky is ablaze with more shooting stars than normal. Each night their numbers increase. The spectacle will culminate Saturday, August 12, one night later than usual. Then the moon will be a harmless crescent that rises hours after when you’ll be watching, so it won’t brighten the sky and mask any meteors.
You can see a meteor a minute if you play this right.
To do so, you must not observe from any city, where the bright sky will mask all but a few an hour. You also must not try to watch the sky through a break between trees: You need a wide open swath of the heavens, like what you’d see from a stadium seat or a ball field or, hopefully, your back yard. And don’t bother if it’s very hazy or mostly cloudy that night. Instead, try it on Friday night, August 11, which will probably show a meteor every three minutes starting at midnight. Then you’ve successfully seen Perseids in case the sky is cloudy the best night, Saturday.
Expect one meteor every five to eight minutes between 9 and 11 p.m. on Saturday night, August 12, then one meteor every three to four minutes between 11 p.m. and midnight, then one meteor every two minutes from midnight to 1 a.m., and a meteor a minute starting at 1 a.m.
Look in any direction but take in as much sky as you can. Overhead is great. Use insect repellant if necessary and bring a light jacket to be warm enough.
These Perseids are superfast. They collide head on with the Earth and sizzle through our atmosphere at 37 miles per second. Each is visible for only a second or two. So if you happen to be looking down, well, by the time a companion has shouted “look at that!” you’ve missed it. Therefore, to keep staring upward and to avoid neck strain, spread a blanket or use lawn chairs.
Don’t worry about injury. Although three houses within 150 miles of here have been damaged by meteorites since I moved to Woodstock 51 years ago, none came from meteor showers. That’s because the Perseids are fragile, icy fragments of the comet Swift-Tuttle, not the sturdy, stony asteroid fragments that have damaged two houses in central Connecticut and one in New Jersey.
Join the family! 
