The Perseid summer light show is back, and viewing conditions are especially promising across the Northern Hemisphere, including right here in Maryland.

The Perseid meteor shower will peak over the next few days. The show will be most visible when the shower peaks on the night of Wednesday Aug. 12, into the early morning of Thursday Aug. 13.

However, meteors will still be easily seen before that night, and the shower will remain active until around Aug. 23. During the peak, 50 to 100 meteors can be spotted per hour.

Viewing conditions will be fair during the peak of the shower across Maryland. But periods of thick high clouds and some haze could make spotting meteors a bit more difficult over the next few nights. In general, the best viewing will occur leading up to dawn away from city lights. Meteors can be spotted in all directions, with a few becoming visible as early as the late evening.

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The Perseids are a perennial favorite because they tend to produce brilliant fireballs. Summer temperatures also make this shower popular. The moon will be in its new moon phase during the Perseids’ peak, making viewing conditions even better.

What is a meteor?

Meteors are left over bits of larger comets and asteroids. Each year, Earth passes through these trails of meteors. As they collide with our atmosphere, they create bright fireballs and other sights as they burn up and disintegrate. The Perseid Meteor Shower is tied to comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, an icy ball that orbits the sun every 133 years and is not scheduled for a return visit until 2125. Observations of this meteor shower date back over 2,000 years.

The meteor shower’s peak Wednesday night into Thursday morning coincides with a total solar eclipse across Spain, Iceland and Greenland and a six-planet parade — though the best time to view the fireballs will come after totality.

As many as 50 to 100 meteors per hour may be visible under ideal conditions, according to NASA. The American Meteor Society estimates 30 to 50 meteors per hour could be seen from rural regions.

Random meteors are visible in dark skies on any given night. Meteor showers tend to put on dazzling celestial shows and happen at predictable times every year when the Earth travels through trails of debris left behind by comets and, sometimes, asteroids. Those remnants collide with Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds, producing streaks of light known as shooting stars.

WJZ is a media partner of The Banner.