Tips for enjoying the Perseids show –

The night of San Lorenzo and the shooting stars: tonight many will be looking up to admire the phenomenon that tradition links to the martyrdom of the Saint, burned alive on the night of August 10. The embers of his sacrifice would be remembered by the twinkling of the stars in the sky, the “tears” of Lorenzo. The spectacle of shooting stars is given to us by the Perseid meteor shower, generated by the trail of dust left by the Swift-Tuttle comet that in this period meets the Earth’s orbit. The maximum visibility of the luminous trails will be on Monday, August 12, when a frequency of about a hundred meteors per hour is expected, thanks to the absence of disturbance from the brightness of the Moon. The dust sown by the comet, penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere at great speed, burns by friction and releases the characteristic trail to which one’s secret desires are entrusted.

The Perseid meteor shower has been active since July 15 and will be until August 24, but as mentioned, the phenomenon of shooting stars will be at its maximum visibility on August 12. The lunar phases are favorable these days: the satellite will set about an hour after midnight and will be in its first quarter, with a brightness of 49%, and therefore will not interfere excessively with the vision of shooting stars. The full moon of August 19 could, however, reduce the visibility of meteors in the central part of the month. Some advice for observation: better to face upwards in the second part of the night.