Michigan Skywatchers Ready for Biggest Meteor Shower

I can honestly tell you I've never seen a meteor shower before. I wouldn't even know what to look for.

This week, skywatchers are in for a real treat. We're not talking about one meteor shower, we're talking about a double-header for stargazers.

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What exactly is a meteor shower? En.wikipedia.org

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories.

Very interesting to say the least. There a many Michiganders who break out the high tech telescopes to get a nice glimpse of a meteor shower, or two.

So when is all of this going to take place this week? Mlive.com tells us:

The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak this week on the night of Friday, August 12 and pre-dawn on Saturday, August 13. Beloved for its brilliant, colorful and plentiful meteors that coincide with August’s balmy and often cloud-free skies, the Perseids can produce as many as 90 meteors per hour over peak nights.

I know this sounds crazy but when I think of meteor showers and the "super moon," it makes me think of all those outer space movies I've seen over the years, like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Apollo 13.

All I know is I need to either buy a high tech telescope this week or find someone who already has one and is planning on viewing the double-header spectacles this week.