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Watch this: 'the best meteor shower of the year' takes place this weekend

Watch this: 'the best meteor shower of the year' takes place this weekend

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The Perseid meteor kicks off tomorrow evening, bringing with it hundreds of visible meteors and even a few planets.

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Perseid meteor shower
Perseid meteor shower

Starting tomorrow evening you can enjoy what NASA describes as "the best meteor shower of the year" — and you'll even get to see a few planets, too. The Perseid meteor shower will last from August 11th to the 13th, and not only will you get to witness plenty of meteors flying through the sky, the brightest planets in the solar system will also be visible, including both Jupiter and Venus. "We expect to see meteor rates as high as a hundred per hour," NASA's Bill Cooke says.

The best viewing time on each night starts after 10PM, and as always it's best to get away from the lights of the city if possible — "a visit to the countryside will typically triple the number of meteors you see," says NASA. Not only is this a great opportunity to see some awesome shooting stars, but NASA is also using the shower as an excuse to gather some crowdsourced data. The new Meteor Counter app on both iOS and Android lets you count the meteors you see and report the information back to the space agency. It's an easy way to do your part for science.