Perseid meteor shower: When it is and how to watch the peak

This weekend is peak for the most popular annual meteor shower among Earthlings.

The Perseid meteor shower is at its most dazzling on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

This year, light from the full moon will outshine faint fireballs, but the North State offers some excellent dark places to view brighter ones — visible as our planet passes through debris left from Comet Swift-Tuttle.

It will be another century before Swift-Tuttle nears Earth again — the comet orbits the sun every 133 years — but we can watch specks of dust left in its wake burn up as they hit Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA.

You can glimpse these "falling stars" any night through Aug. 22. You might see a few later in the month, too, before Earth passes completely out of Swift-Tuttle's debris trail on Sept. 1.

The Perseids are visible at night in places away from light pollution with a good view of the northern sky.