The dark beaches of Anna Maria Island are the perfect place to view one of nature’s most spectacular free shows — the Perseid meteor showers.
The 2016 version of this celestial spectacle will peak this week on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 11-12. NASA says the shower will be “extra awesome” this year, with up to 200 meteors per hour visible if weather cooperates with clear skies.
This is double the normal amount of “shooting stars” seen yearly in the summer event.
Optimum viewing will be after 1 a.m. on Aug. 12, following the moon set. The shower will continue to be visible until Aug. 24.
The meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus, as the fragments seen of earth appear to radiate from that direction.
The spectacle is really fragments from the much closer-to-home Swift-Tuttle comet, which orbits our sun every 133 years and leaves behind a trail of particles as it goes. One a year, the earth travels through the field of particles and the Perseid meteor shower ensues.
Take your chairs or blankets to the darkest local beach and wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust. Before you know it, there will be more stars to wish upon than you can count. Keep the lights off on your flashlights and cell phones as the sea turtles are still in active nesting mode on Anna Maria beaches.
Free summer fun, brought to you by the universe.
—Sandy Ambrogi