By RYO SASAKI/ Staff Writer
August 12, 2024 at 15:27 JST
The Perseid meteor shower in August 2021 (Provided by Hoshi-no-kansatsukan Mantenboshi)
The Perseid meteor shower, one of the three biggest shooting star shows of the year, will peak through the early morning of Aug. 14.
According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the best time to see the shower is before dawn on Aug. 13.
Due to the phase of the moon, the dark sky will be free from the effects of moonlight, allowing detection of even faint meteors, the NAOJ said.
The NAOJ said this is the first time in three years that the Perseid meteor shower can be seen under such favorable conditions.
The best time to see the shooting stars is around 2:20 a.m. in Sapporo, 2:50 a.m. in Tokyo, and 3:40 a.m. in Fukuoka.
Forty to 45 meteors can be seen an hour with the naked eye at the peak in dark areas.
Twenty shooting stars per hour are expected to be visible before dawn on Aug. 14.
The best place to observe them is on a riverbed or high ground, in an open area with no streetlights or tall buildings around.
The key is to wait patiently for at least 30 minutes for your eyes to become accustomed to the darkness.
It may be possible to take pictures of the shooting stars with a smartphone, depending on the camera’s performance level.
The key is to use a tripod or similar device to keep the camera steady and set the mode for starry sky or nightscape. ISO sensitivity should be set high, the aperture value set low, and exposure time should last for a few seconds.
The use of the continuous shooting function is also recommended to take as many pictures as possible and check for the shooting stars later.
The Asahi Shimbun, together with the NAOJ and the University of Tokyo, has been live-streaming images from the Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the University of Tokyo’s Kiso Observatory in Nagano Prefecture on its YouTube channel: (https://www.youtube.com/c/astroasahi）
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