Locals head to Genesee County Park to watch Perseid meteor shower

 Families sat at picnic tables and on blankets at Genesee County Park and Forest Friday evening, eyes trained on the sky, waiting for meteors to streak over the stars.

The Perseid meteor shower, so named after the constellation it appeared to come from, the Greek hero Perseus, appears every August. This year, however, NASA officials expected an outburst of activity which hasn’t been seen since 2009. The best viewing, according to NASA, was between midnight and dawn on Friday with activity expecting to increase Friday night into Saturday morning.

The reason some years are better than others for meteor showers, according to Joel Schmid, president of the Rochester Astronomy Club, is that there is more debris left behind from a comet. The debris burns up in the atmosphere, making up a meteor shower.

“What astronomers are able to do is look at the last time the comet came through and sort of get an idea of how much junk it left behind in space. Then they will know if the meteor shower will be more intense,” he said. “A lot of times they get it wrong. They take their best guess.”

Meteors are typically bright green or yellow-green due to the minerals inside the meteor; iron burns green and sulphur burns yellow.

The comet the Perseid meteors come from, Swift-Tuttle, is bigger than some of the other comets, causing the Perseid meteor shower to be brighter and bigger than the other ones throughout the year.

While the Genesee County Park and Forest held stargazing programs in the past, this was the first time they held one on the Perseid meteor shower. It was a huge success with 66 people signing up and 23 groups on the waiting list. The program lasted from 9:30-11 p.m., and while not many meteors were spotted, people were able to look through a telescope at the moon and listen to the legends behind the constellations.