The Perseid Meteor Shower, usually the best meteor shower of the year, will peak late next week. A person watching a clear sky from a dark location might see a bright meteor every minute. These meteors are actually specks of rock that have broken off Comet Swift-Tuttle and continued to orbit the Sun until they vaporize in Earth's atmosphere . The featured composite image shows a outburst of Perseids as they appeared over Turkey during last year's meteor shower . Enough meteors were captured to trace the shower's radiant back to the constellation of Perseus on the far left. The tail-end of the Perseids will still be going during the total solar eclipse on August 21 , creating a rare opportunity for some lucky astrophotographers to image a Perseid meteor during the day.
Memorable APOD: Meteor Showers