The Perseid meteor shower, expected to peak Aug. 12-13, will light up the night sky with up to 100 meteors per hour, offering stargazers one of the year’s best celestial shows.

Meteor showers happen when dust from a passing comet or asteroid passes through the Earth's atmosphere. The tiny particles - roughly the size of a grain of sand - vaporise creating visible streaks of light. In the most dense parts of the dust stream more meteors are visible.