Night sky – August 2017: shooting stars and America eclipsed

During August, our planet passes through debris strewn around the orbit of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The particles, or meteoroids, encountered tend to be small, typically about the size of a grain of sand. Although on parallel orbits, a perspective effect makes it look like the meteor trails produced emanate from a small region of sky. What is being described here is a meteor shower and the apparent point of origin is known as the shower radiant. Perseids Meteor Shower - Blink and You Might Miss