Perseid Meteor Shower To Light Up Summer Skies

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A meteor shower that takes place each year around this time will be most visible Thursday and Friday night, provided there are no clouds blocking your view.

It's called the Perseid meteor shower.  It's debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet, according to Edward Guinan, a professor of astronomy at Villanova University.

CBS 3 Meteorologist Justin Drabick: Perseid Meteor Shower To Peak, Outburst Possible

"What happens is the tail of the material is blowing off of it, and what is happening this year is that we are in a dense part of the debris field," Guinan says. "There is lots of dust and particles in there and the earth is coming into that area. "Well, actually now it all ready started entering into the debris field."

Guinan says the best time to view the cosmic display is after midnight Friday and Saturday.

"They last about a second, maybe two seconds," he says. "And if it were dark and conditions are right you would see, its predicted, one or two a minute."

But the sky needs to be clear, so there will be no-show if it's completely cloud covered.

In:
• Villanova University
• Meteor Shower
• KYW Newsradio
• Philadelphia