Samantha Lawler, will be setting her alarm early to catch the Perseid meteor shower Wednesday morning. The University of Regina astronomy professor was a guest on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.
She says it’ll be worth losing some sleep.
“You have to get up before 4 a.m. to see it really spectacularly,” said Lawler, who hopes for a clear night sky.
Listen to Samantha Lawler on The Greg Morgan Morning Show:
The Perseid meteor shower happens when Earth speeds through the comet debris. If the Earth passes through a comet’s orbit, tiny grain sands and dust hit the upper atmosphere at extremely high speeds and these particles burn up.
“That is when you get a shooting star. It’s really pretty,” Lawler said.
Something else to look for Wednesday morning: two of the brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, will be close to each other.
In the coming weeks, people will be able to see this planetary alignment without a telescope or binoculars. Lawler says Venus and Jupiter will almost look like double stars. They line up once every 13 months.
Mercury will also be making an appearance.
“If you’re in a really dark place, you can see the geometry of our galaxy as well, the Milky Way moving that looks like a cloud almost across the sky,” Lawler said.
“I love seeing that kind of geometry in the sky.”