2023-08-14 08:05:00
This weekend was particularly marked, on the astronomical level, by the peak of the Perseids, one of the phenomena which produces the most meteorites each year.
Grand filaments of light in the night sky. This weekend, comet-watchers were treated to Peak Perseid Night, an annual “meteor shower,” which took place Saturday night into Sunday. Although less important, the phenomenon was also visible in the night from Sunday to Monday.
On the X platform (ex-Twitter), many Internet users have published images of their stellar observations. Some more or less amateur astronomers have shared their accelerated speed videos, on which we can observe stars spinning at full speed.
Between 70 and 110 shooting stars per hour
In the photos also published on X by Internet users who were able to witness this spectacular episode in a favorable setting (notably without urban light pollution), the shooting stars materialize by a straight white line in the middle of the sky dotted with fixed stars.
Some observers have succeeded in isolating several shooting stars in a single night, which shows the intensity of the phenomenon. Between 70 and 110 shooting stars were expected every hour on the night from Saturday to Sunday.
This year, the visibility conditions for the phenomenon were optimal, because the Moon was at the end of its cycle (last quarter), which limited its light, which can sometimes interfere with astronomical observation.
According to NASA (the phenomenon was also visible in North America), the best time to see these stars was “between midnight and dawn”, and meteor activity was “at its peak an hour before dawn “.
Starlink satellites, the other spectacle of the night
More surprising: many Internet users have claimed to have observed passages of satellites from Starlink, the company of Elon Musk, which have been circling in the sky since 2019. These devices move in the form of a long alignment of luminous points. Amateur astronomers have described the sight as “impressive”.
If you missed this particularly starry weekend, don’t panic: the shooting stars should still be visible until the end of August, and particularly during the night of August 16, marked by the new Moon, which means that our satellite will be almost invisible in the sky. The show should therefore be very little parasitized by the moonlight.
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