What is special this year is that the moon is almost not in the sky, three days before the moon reaches its first quarter and sets well before midnight, local time, so it will be possible to see many meteors
Today (August 12, 2021) is the peak of the Perseid shower - the biggest meteor shower of the summer. The peak itself was already at 15:00 Israel time but it is such an extensive shower that remnants of it will be seen even in the next night or two.
What is special this year is that the moon is almost not in the sky, three days before the moon reaches its first quarter and sets well before midnight, local time.
It is estimated that we will see meteors at a rate of 100 per hour. There are many more but only the bright ones are visible, and of course the darker the place the more meteors there are chances to catch.
The meter appears to be from the Perseus group, named after the hero of Greek mythology. The Perseids are one of the longest meteors in terms of number of years in existence and are one of the largest meteor showers of the year, rivaled only by the Geminids in December in recent years.
The source of the Perseids is the periodic comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle. This comet was discovered in 1862, and came close to the sun again after the discovery only in 1992, meaning that its orbit around the sun is 133 years. The Perseids have been a known meteor since the mid-19th century, and Swift-Tuttle's passage through the inner solar system three decades ago promises a strong stream of particles from its tail that burn up in the atmosphere and look like shooting stars, deep into the 21st century. It is estimated that about 95 bright meteors will arrive tonight during peak hours in the morning.
Details of events related to the Perseid shower on the Israel Space Agency website
Update at 20:15 Channel 12 reports on tens of thousands of Israelis making their way south, and that KKL-Junk has announced that all overnight parking lots are occupied. However, the Negev is large - from Roham through Mitzpe Ramon to the Arava.
