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Clear skies, but bright moon, for peak of 2019’s Perseids over Bulgaria
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The annual Perseids meteor shower will peak in Bulgaria’s night skies on August 12 and 23 2019, and the good news is that the weather forecast is for clear skies – but the not so good news is the show will have competition from the waxing moon.
There will be a full moon on August 15, meaning that something of the shine of the Perseids may be taken off in the days leading up to it.
However, already by August 11, the Perseids would be putting on a pretty good show, ahead of the peak nights when 50 to 100 meteors an hour should be seen.
The best time to view the shower in the northern hemisphere is deep into the night and at pre-dawn hours, but brighter meteors could be seen as early as 10pm, according to Nasa.
Bulgaria’s capital Sofia and second city Plovdiv, as well as the Black Sea cities of Varna and Bourgas, are all forecast to have clear skies, but the viewing enjoyment would be higher at other places with less light pollution.
The Perseids have been observed for at least two millennia and are made up of bits of dust and ice trailing the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years, according to Nasa. Their name derives from the fact that they appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus.
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