Debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet is passing through the skies right now, and tonight you might just be lucky enough to catch a glimpse.

While the peak of the Perseids meteor shower was yesterday, the meteors will still be visible for several more days.

The shower usually begins in the middle of July, peaking on the 12 of August. The actual peak time was 2 p.m. yesterday, which meant that the height of meteor activity could not be seen.

You can still catch the aftermath, as meteors will be soaring above us for a few days still.

Unfortunately the moon will be rather bright this week, which may obscure vision of some of the smaller less bright meteors.

To best view the shower, look to the sky between about 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. before the moon rises. The meteors that you will be able to see will be the brightest ones. They’re often colourful and slow moving during this shower. A dark place away from the glow of the moon is best for catching the shower. Sometimes large cities can cast light pollution into the sky, obscuring the view of the stars. Going out of town may be the best place to view the Perseids shower.

Astronomers are predicting an increased amount of meteors from the usual 60 per hour. The Earth is coming near a trail of debris left behind by a comet.

A meteor shower happens when the earth passes into the trail of a comet. The “shooting stars” that are visible from earth are pieces of metal and rock the comet sends off behind it. Meteroids are actually barely the size of a grain of salt. What is visible from earth is the trail of light given off when the debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere and burns up.

The trail of light is made up of iron, sodium and magnesium. Each of these different elements produce a different colour of light; iron makes yellow light, sodium makes orange-yellow light and magnesium makes a blue green light. Meteors can also be made up of silicon, which produce a red light.

Meteors do not usually survive their trip through the atmosphere. When they do, they can hit the earth and are then called a meteorite.