Real Talk!

This evening, just after sunset, Southern and central Ontario, weather permitting, should provide the most spectacular cosmic alignment of planets sprinkled with shooting stars. Yup, hundreds of shooting stars are expected to streak across the sky!

The best viewing time for the shooting stars is between midnight and dawn.... but the planetary alignment will begin right at sunset. If you look low in the westerly sky at sunset and you will begin to see Venus, Saturn, Mars and the waxing crescent Moon within 10 degrees of each other. This should remain visible until about 10 p.m.

Then, as the skies darken, starting around 10:30 p.m., the Perseid shower should kick into full flight and carry on until dawn.

If you wish to spend just one stretch of time meteor-watching, set your alarm for around 3 a.m.

Star-gazers are saying this should be one of the best displays of the Perseid meteor showers for some years because they coincide with an, essentially, moon-free night (the skies will be darker than usual) AND because we will be passing through a denser patch of Swift-Tuttle's dust stream than usual. The Swift-Tuttle comet is the largest object known to make repeated passes near Earth. Its nucleus is about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) across, roughly equal to the object that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Comets are big snowballs of ice, dirt, pebbles and gravel, and they evaporate every time they go around the sun and leave behind all these little bits.As the debris hits the atmosphere it burns up in streaks of light. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, which rises high in the sky around midnight and is nearly overhead by dawn.

Perseid meteoroids (which is what they're called while in space) are fast. They enter Earth's atmosphere (and are then called meteors) at roughly 133,200 mph (60 kilometers per second) relative to the planet. Most are the size of sand grains; a few are as big as peas or marbles. Almost none hit the ground, but if one does, it's called a meteorite.

“A very good shower will produce about one meteor per minute under a dark country sky,” observatory astronomers say. The annual August Perseid is among the strongest cascades of the year, and tonight it’s at its height. The best viewing locations will be in the Northern Hemisphere, away from the city lights and you can expect to see 75-100 meteors an hour!

Break out the reclining chair, or a rug or blanket outside.... according to the National Geographic, the best way to watch the show is by simply lying back on the ground or in a chair and watch with the naked eye. Doctors will warn you not to just look up, because you can get a crick in the back your neck if you watch for long!

Scan as much of the sky as possible. The meteors can appear anywhere, heading in any direction. If you trace their paths backward, they'll all point to the constellation Perseus.