THUNDER BAY -- A shooting star will fall through the sky nearly every minute on Wednesday night.
For the first time since 2010, sunlight reflecting off the moon isn't expected to obscure the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, which will vaporize gas and ice particles into the Earth's atmosphere at a rate of 50 meteors per hour.
The Swift-Tuttle comet particles appear every year in the August night sky but weather pending, it's expected to be a banner night and the David Thompson Observatory at Fort William Historical Park has global plans.
The local observatory will be the only Canadian site to stream its camera view online at www.slooh.com. The park has worked with the site on other meteor showers and solar eclipses before but Thunder Bay's perspective will be the Canadian perspective for those watching around the world.
"The great thing about it is, you don't want to use a telescope or binoculars," said the park's coordinator of education and lifelong learning, Anthony Marrelli.
"We're pretty fortunate here because we don't have the same amount of light pollution as say, downtown Toronto. If you're in the center of downtown, there's a bit of light pollution. It can be difficult to see but if you drive for 10 minutes, it's very easy to get access to the dark sky in this area."
The shower is expected to last from dusk until 2 a.m. on Thursday.
