Poles gear up for night of shooting stars after solar eclipse

Skywatchers in Poland will have another astronomical spectacle to look forward to just hours after Wednesday evening's partial solar eclipse: the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, which can produce up to 100 meteors an hour under favourable conditions.

Photo:

PAP/Paweł Supernak

Wednesday, August 12, brings two major celestial events.

The first is a solar eclipse that will be visible in full from parts of Spain and Iceland. In Poland, the eclipse will be partial, reaching a maximum of about 88 percent in the Kłodzko Valley area in the country's southwest and 85 percent in the Masurian Lake District in the northeast.

The partial eclipse will begin in Poland between about 7:10 p.m. and 7:20 p.m., depending on location. The sun will set between about 8 p.m. in the southeastern city of Rzeszów and 8:30 p.m. in Szczecin in the northwest.

The sun during sunset as seen from Arija, Spain, August 11, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Borja Suarez

After the eclipse, skywatchers can turn their attention to the Perseids, one of the year's best-known meteor showers, often referred to as "shooting stars."

The good news for observers is that the moon will be new, meaning its light will not interfere with viewing the meteors.

The Perseids are active from July 17 through August 24, with the shower reaching its peak on Wednesday night.

Up to 100 meteors an hour may be visible at the peak under ideal conditions.

The shower's radiant—the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate—will be in the constellation Perseus.

For the best chance of seeing the meteors, astronomers recommend finding the darkest possible location, away from streetlights and other sources of artificial light.

Cloud cover, however, could obstruct the view.

Photo: pexels.com/CC0

Despite their popular name, "shooting stars" are not stars. A meteor is a flash of light produced when a small piece of rock from space, known as a meteoroid, enters Earth's atmosphere.

In most cases, the space rock burns up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground. If a larger object survives its passage through the atmosphere and reaches Earth, it is called a meteorite.

A sufficiently large meteorite can create a crater and leave fragments that can sometimes be found nearby.

Meteors occur randomly throughout the year, but some appear in groups known as meteor showers that are visible at particular times.

Meteors from a given shower appear to radiate from a particular area of the sky, known as the radiant. Meteor showers are generally named after the constellation in which their radiant appears.

(gs)

Source: IAR/PAP/TVP Info