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Published on July 31, 2007

Astronomers said the annual perseid meteor shower was known as one of the most beautiful of its kind, second only to the renowned Leonid meteor shower.

The perseid meteors will appear in the atmosphere from the constellation Perseus, which will rise in the northeast sky at around 10pm on August 12. The spectacle will continue into the early morning, reaching a peak at around 4am to 5am, said Worrawit Tanwithibandit of the Bandit Observatory Tower in Chachoengsao's Plaeng Yao district. "Half of the perseid meteor shower will be intensely bright. Most of the meteors will appear white and yellow and will travel at a speed of about 59 kilometres per second," Worrawit said.

"To witness the shower, binoculars are not necessary as you can see it with the naked eye by looking in a northeasterly direction at a 45-degree angle from the horizontal. The shower can normally be seen in most parts of the world including throughout Thailand."

However, the only uncertainty is if there is a lot of cloud cover, Worrawit said.

"In clear skies it can be seen easily. Just find a dark area with as few surrounding lights as possible," he said.

"But I am not sure how much of the shower we will see this year as we have missed chances for 10 years now due to bad weather and too much cloud."

Astronomer Boonraksa Sunthorntham, director of Sirindhorn Observatory Tower in Chiang Mai, said clear skies would allow Thais to see meteors at a rate of 60 to 100 per hour.

The perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The phenomenon is named after the constellation of Perseus. Normally the shower is visible from mid-July each year, but the bulk of its activity falls between August 8 and 14.