AUG 4, 2003 - The 2003 Perseid Meteor Shower is as timely as a website gets, priming you for next week's sky show. The annual Perseid meteor shower, produced as Earth passes through scattered remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle, will peak this year on Wednesday, August 13. Be out and about around 4:00 AM to catch the Perseids at their most numerous - maybe one per second, if you're in the northern hemisphere, if the sky is clear and you're looking away from the Moon. But don't miss the really showy Earthgrazers early in the evening on the 12th. (Keep an eye out for the Red Planet drawing near, while your out there.!) And ponder what if Comet Swift-Tuttle might in a hundred years or a thousand years or so be on a collision course with our home planet, instead of just grazing the Earth. (You'll never look at those showy shooting stars the same way again.)
