Watching the Perseid

It's time for some late-summer stargazing! Here's your guide to watching the Perseid Meteor shower this week, courtesty of The Transient Sky (click for source):

"If you’ve never seen a meteor this is the week to see one...a few times a year the Earth encounters a major shower which produces enough meteors to be noticeable by anyone. This week marks one of those major showers as the Perseids meteor shower will be best seen on the morning of August 13...The peak of this year’s Perseids is predicted to take place around August 13 at 3h20m UT (11:20 pm EDT, 8:20 pm PDT, 8:20 pm Tucson time) which is not a great time for us in Tucson. Still, the maximum is broad and can last for many hours. The last 2 years have also seen a number of spikes in activity on the night or 2 around the predicted peak...

"So how can you observe the Perseids? The key is to get outside Thursday night/Friday morning. The reason these meteors are called the Perseids is because they appear to radiate (move out from) a point (called the radiant) in the constellation of Perseus. For most of the night Perseus is located low in the northeastern sky so most meteors should come from that direction. Late in the night the radiant will be located just north of overhead. Note, you don’t have to look directly at the radiant. Meteors will be visible all over the sky and it is usually best to look about 45-90 degrees away from the radiant. Though the radiant will be visible for nearly the entire night it will be too low in the sky to produce high numbers of meteors until after midnight. The later in the night you observe, the greater the number of meteors."