Every time an Event In The Sky happens over North America—meteor showers, blood moons, the aurora borealis, a star, just any star, remember stars?—we picture the below occurring as a backdrop behind our skyline. How cool would that be? Surely this meteor shower/blood moon/aurora borealis will be different, and what we read online about being able to see it in the city will actually be TRUE.
Composite of stuff we can't see here
But what happens is that we get this. Because we live in a city with light pollution, and also it's usually cloudy that day, and why don't you just move to the country if you want to see the sky so badly?
What we can see here, but picture more light pollution
Keep all of those letdowns from the past in mind as we tell you the annual Perseid meteor shower is about to peak, and according to NYMetroWeather, "astronomers are suggesting the potential for up to 100 meteors per hour" during the early morning hours (that's tonight, Wednesday, into tomorrow morning, Thursday).
This year even the moon is cooperating, dimming down to a thin crescent to make the meteors more visible. Also, check out these clear skies predicted!:
Clear skies, thin moons, full meteor shower
But what about New York City specifically? NYMetroWeather points out that, of course, "the city light interferes greatly with viewing anything in the night sky," suggesting instead that you "head out to the suburbs of New Jersey, New York, Long Island, or Connecticut. Light pollution in those areas is far less than within the 5 boroughs. This will give you a much better chance to see the meteors."
According to this map, we are in a red zone of light pollution, but not that far away from being slightly in the clear—Business Insider points out: "If you made it to an orange zone or better, you'd be able to observe. Another way to gauge the light—if you can see some stars, then you can see some meteors. If you look up and see nothing, then you need to keep moving away from the city."
And it may just be worth a trekking out of the city for this. EarthySky says the annual event "is perhaps the most beloved meteor shower of the year for the Northern Hemisphere," also making note of that "slender waning crescent moon" creating an ideal atmosphere for tonight's. The NY Times has even hyped it up, explaining that it's "as if stars are darting at you from all directions."
