ARCHIV - Eine Sternschnuppe leuchtet am Nachthimmel am 12.08.2014 über dem Landkreis Oder-Spree nahe Sieversdorf (Brandenburg). In der Nacht zum 13.08.2014 hatte der Sternschnuppenstrom der Perseiden seine maximale Pracht entfaltet. In den lauen Sommernächten im August 2015 dürfen sich Sternengucker auf besonders viele Sternschnuppen freuen. Foto: Patrick Pleul/dpa (zu dpa "Sonne, Mond und Sterne im «Sternschnuppenmonat» August 2015" vom 20.07.2015) +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++

Until the weekend, night owls can again observe numerous shooting stars in the sky. Like every year in August, the so-called Perseids make their orbits and inspire amateur astronomers, shooting star hunters and photographers.

If you keep an eye on the sky over the next few days, you can admire around 30 to 50 shooting stars per hour. Reason enough to prepare a few wishes in advance. We tell you when you should look up to the sky and in which direction you need to look – even with directions.

Incidentally, the weather forecast promises a cloud-free sky in many places in the next few days and thus a clear view of the Perseids. Unfortunately, the moon is lighting up the sky so much this year that only the brightest shooting stars will probably be visible.

According to the “Association of Star Friends”, shooting star hunters can find the Perseids in the eastern night sky.

Most of the shooting stars are said to be seen in the constellation of Perseus, very close to the constellation of Cassiopeia.

If you don’t know much about the constellations Perseus or Cassiopeia, the following directions might be helpful:

As Sven Melchert from the “Association of Star Friends” told the German Press Agency (DPA), most shooting stars should fall in the night from Friday to Saturday.

“The Perseids reach their theoretical peak in the early morning of August 13 at around three o’clock,” says the author. The best observation time should therefore be between late evening and early morning.

Incidentally, in 2022 the entire period of activity of the Perseids extends from July 17 to August 24.

The question of how to pronounce “Perseids” is hotly debated every year. According to Duden, the word is separated as follows: Per-se-i-den. In accordance with the separation between “se” and “i”, there is also a short pause in the pronunciation. So the “e” and the “i” are not pronounced like “ei”.

In phonetic characters, or IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), “Perseids” looks like this: [pɛʁzeˈʔiːdn̩]. The small dash (ˈ) between the “e” and the “ʔ” is used here as a stress mark. It indicates that the main stress of the word is on the following syllable (i.e. the “i”).

You can listen to an audio recording of the pronunciation on the Duden website. Incidentally, Google pronounces “Perseids” incorrectly: Here, the “e” and the “i” are combined to form an “egg”.

Would you like to capture the short natural spectacle for eternity? Below we have put together a few tips on how you can best photograph shooting stars.

The Perseids are meteor showers that peak in August each year. Around this time every year, Earth’s orbit around the Sun is submerged in a cloud of debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle as it travels through space.

The meteor shower was given the name Perseids because most shooting stars appear in the constellation of Perseus. Another name for the natural spectacle is “Laurentius’ tears”.