Perseid meteor shower 2016: Watch it here!

Image credit: NASA

New Delhi: The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak on August 11 and 12, putting on a great celestial light show for skygazers across the Northern Hemisphere.

According to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, the meteor showers will appear at double than usual rates, with some predictions showing an outburst of up to 150 or 200 meteors at the peak. Normally, a Perseid meteor shower has 80 to 100 meteor showers per hour. US observers will also get a great view of the ramp up to the peak between moonset and sunrise on Friday morning, August 12.

The best time to view the Perseids is between midnight and dawn. The showers will be visible to the naked eye once it adapts to darkness.

However, in case you're experiencing cloudy or light-polluted skies, a live broadcast of the Perseid meteor shower will be available via Ustream overnight on August 11-12 and August 12-13, beginning at 10 p.m. EDT. Click here to watch it live online.

The Perseid meteor shower is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle as it swings through the inner solar system and ejects a trail of dust and gravel along its orbit. Perseid meteors travel at the blistering speed of 132,000 miles per hour (59 kilometers per second) - that’s 500 times faster than the fastest car in the world.