Perseids: Which night do you see the most shooting stars?

August is considered the month of shooting stars as the Perseids zoom through our atmosphere.

Rainer Kresken (57), Esa space engineer and head of the Starkenburg observatory in Heppenheim (Hesse): “The Perseids are small remnants of the comet Swift-Tuttle. Every 130 years it revolves around the sun and leaves a trail of dust every time. The earth crosses this dust path in mid-June to mid-August. Their particles hit the earth’s atmosphere at high speed – up to 60 kilometers per second – where they burn and make the air molecules glow – these are shooting stars. “”

And when do you see most of them?

Kresken: “Most of them fall on the night of August 12th and 13th. About fifty sniff an hour and then whiz through the air. The best time to see them is between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. Get a sleeping mat and choose a dark place out of town if possible. Lie flat on your back and see what it takes! “”

You have to consider a few wishes. They say that with every shooting star you see, a wish comes true – provided you don’t give it away! Where this superstition comes from is uncertain.

One possible explanation: humans once saw divine sparks of light in the stars. They interpreted falling stars as glowing wicks on which the angels fell while they cleaned the candles in the sky. And so you hoped for an angel at your side when you silently expressed a wish at the sight of a falling star.

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