The Perseids is one of the brighter meteor showers and can be seen each year between July 17 and August 24. Whilst they can be seen for a pretty long period, the peak tends to be around August 9 to August 13. This year, the peak is on the night between August 12 and 13.
The Perseid meteor shower is made up of bits of debris left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The shower gets the name Perseid from the constellation Perseus, as the direction it seems to come from in the sky lies in the same direction as Perseus. When the meteor shower is at its peak, around 60 shooting stars per hour can be seen crossing the heavens.
This year, however, your plans to see the meteor shower may be slightly ruined by the Moon. With a full Moon at its peak, the rate of meteors is reduced from the usual 60 to only 15 to 20 per hour. Whilst the shower may therefore not be as spectacular as in other years, it is still definitely worth a look.
Luckily, you don’t need much in the way of equipment, just yourself, some patience and a clear sky- that last one might be a little hard to get in the Netherlands, but fingers crossed. Find a spot that is dark- so away from city lights and give your eyes some time to adjust.
Make sure you’re equipped for the weather, we know it is Dutch summer, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get cold at night. Once you’ve made yourself comfortable, you’ll want to gaze up to east-north-east. The best time to view the shower will be from around 3.45am to 4.45am.
In any case, you’ll want to wait until the sun has set and it is sufficiently dark. One more thing, make sure you check the weather forecast- there’s no point in the setting the alarm that early if you won’t be able to see anything.