The Perseid Meteor Shower will approach its peak tonight, during the overnight hours of Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, most viewable at approximately 2 a.m.

The annual meteor shower, known to be the world's best and most reliable for centuries, is typically comprised of about 100 fast, bright meteors per hour leaving lingering trails. Perseid fireballs also blaze brightly within the shower, dazzling onlookers for a mere second or less.

"The Perseids are always an exciting meteor shower to watch out for. Even in large cities it's often possible to catch site of some of the brighter Perseid meteors streaking across the sky, but from a really dark site you can sometimes see dozens per hour,' Dr. Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Greenwich Royal Observatory in London said.

However, this year's Perseid Meteor Shower will be minimal, due to a full moon scheduled for the night of its peak. The brightness of the moon will light up the sky and limit visibility of the meteor shower to only 20-30 meteors per hour at most.

"Despite this year's Perseid shower coinciding with the full moon it's still well worth going out for a look. The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky so try looking away from the bright moon to maximize your chances of seeing one," Dr. Kukula said.

Skygazers are recommended to allot 20 minutes for eyes to adjust to the darkness of the sky, not to use binoculars and head to the countryside for optimal viewing conditions.

Despite the full moon, the celestial display will be best viewed during the transition between the moon and the sun, right before sunrise, when the sky will be completely black.

Occurring every year in August, the Perseid Meteor Shower is caused by debris from a comet called Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. Earth travels through a cloud of 1,000-year-old debris and leaves behind a trail of dust that enters Earth's atmosphere at a speed of more than 133,000 mph before they burn up in Earth's atmosphere to create a meteor shower, according to Space.com.

The Perseids, named after Greek hero Perseus, has been observed for over 2,000 years. It radiations from the constellation Perseus, appearing in the sky from the middle of the gathering of stars.

The Perseids is seen everywhere, with the best views from the Northern hemisphere yearly on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 where viewers can see more than one meteor for every minute.

Double Meteor Shower Tonight Spectacular Cosmic Glimpses of Delta Aquarid and Perseid.
Stargazers and astronomers are getting ready for one of the biggest meteor event of all times as the annual Perseid meteor shower will coincide with the Delta Aquarid meteor shower causing a magnificent cosmic traffic jam. Reuters.
Perseid meteor shower
The glowing trail of a Perseid meteor streaks across the sky over Mount Charleston, about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada in this five-minute camera exposure in the early morning hours of August 13, 2002. Reuters
Perseid meteor shower
The lights of an approaching plane are pictured as a meteor (R) streaks past stars in the night sky, on the outskirts of Cancun August 13, 2010. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. Picture taken using a long exposure. REUTERS/Gerardo Garcia
Perseid meteor shower
Meteors, streak past stars in the night sky near Amman, in the early hours of August 12, 2004. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, and was clearly visible to the naked eye in several parts of the Middle East and Asia. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji
Perseid meteor shower
Photographers use tripods to take pictures of Leonid meteors lighting up the night sky of the desert near Amman, in the early hours of August 12, 2002, at the height of a meteor storm that was clearly visible to the naked eye in several parts of the Middle East and Asia. Meteors are the debris left in the wake of a passing comet infiltrating the Earth's atmosphere.The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when Earth passes through a stream of space grit left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji
Perseid
Astronomer Fred Bruenjes recorded a series of many 30 second long exposures spanning about six hours on the night of 2004 August 11/12 using a wide angle lens. Combining those frames which captured meteor flashes, he produced this dramatic view of the Perseids of summer. Although the comet dust particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky in the eponymous constellation Perseus. Fred Bruenjes/NASA
perseid
Just after the Moon set but before the Sun rose in the early morning hours of 2000 August 12, meteors pelted the Earth from the direction of the constellation Perseus, while ions pelted the Earth from the Sun. The meteors were expected as sub-sand grains long left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle annually create the Perseids Meteor Shower. Jimmy Westlake/Colorado Mounta
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