Perseid Meteor shower captured by NASA Astronaut Ron Garan

NASA astronaut Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron) has shared this shot of his spectacular view from the International Space Station.

The 2012 Perseids Meteor Shower online at NASA

A Perseids composite as  seen on Aug. 12-13, 2011. Concentric circles are star trails.

The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend and if you can't catch the "shooting star" spectacle in person, you can tune in online for live views of the meteor display from NASA.

NASA is inviting people to participate in its "Up All Night" live chat with astronomer Bill Cooke and his team from the Meteoroid Environment Office at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., on Saturday night from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. EDT.

Cooke and his colleagues will answer peoples' questions, while participants enjoy live video and audio feeds of the Perseid meteor shower from a camera mounted at the Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA officials said.

Experts predict this year's Perseid meteor shower will be an impressive sky show, with a waning crescent moon expected to interfere only slightly with the night sky display.

During the meteor shower's peak this weekend (late Saturday night and into early Sunday morning), many fireballs may also visible in the night sky, NASA officials said.

"We expect to see meteor rates as high as a hundred per hour," Cooke said in a statement.  "The Perseids always put on a good show."

The Perseids are actually bits of rock and debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862.

The comet orbits around the sun once every 133 years, but every August, Earth passes through a cloud of its debris, and as the bits of ice and dust burn up in Earth's atmosphere, they create the spectacular Perseid meteor shower that we are familiar with now.

The Perseids are so-called because they appear to radiate from the direction of the constellation of Perseus.

The meteor shower can be seen all over the sky, but the best places to view Perseids will be across the northern hemisphere, according to NASA.

2011 Perseid Meteor Shower Images

Skywatcher and photographer Nick Rose snapped this stunning view of a Perseid meteor from Millbrae, Calif., on Aug. 10, 2011 as the annual Perseid meteor shower neared its peak.

[See more amazing Perseid meteor shower photos from 2011]

Perseids Meteor Shower

Perseid meteors have been observed for over 2000 years; they are shed by the comet Swift-Tuttle.

Because its orbit takes it close to Earth, astronomer Gerrit Verschuur described Swift-Tuttle as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity".

The showers occur from mid-July onwards each year and are best viewed in the northern hemisphere.

Last year, at its peak, the shower produced over 100 meteors an hour.

In the foreground is St Michael's tower, atop Glastonbury Tor, UK, a site famously associated with Arthurian legend.

(Image: Mike-DT6)

Perseids Meteor Shower: Coming soon!

Meteorwatch Trailer 2011

NASA - Bright Fireball Kicks Off Perseid Meteor Shower

A Perseid meteor skimming the Earth's atmosphere. Seen from UK's ancient Stonehenge.



A Perseid meteor -- about 1 inch in diameter and moving at a speed of 134,000 mph -- entered the atmosphere 70 miles above the town of Paint Rock, Ala.

At such a tremendous velocity, the meteor cut a path some 65 miles long, finally burning up 56 miles above Macay Lake, just northeast of the town of Warrior. The meteor was about six times brighter than the planet Venus and would be classified as a fireball by meteor scientists.



A map showing the path of a Perseid some 65 miles long from Paint Rock, Ala., to Macay Lake. Image Credit: NASA/MSFC

The Perseid radiant was low in the sky when the meteor appeared --only 9.5 degrees elevation. Therefore, this meteor could be considered an “Earth grazer” because of its long, shallow path, with an atmospheric entry angle of only 12 degrees.

It’s a very good start to this year's Perseid meteor shower, which will peak on the night of Aug. 12-13 between midnight and dawn.