Qatar residents may want to stay up late on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the Perseids meteor shower, which reaches its peak late tomorrow night and on Sunday.

The bright moon may affect visibility of the shower, a medley of shooting stars that can be seen primarily in the northern hemisphere, but all residents have to do is keep their eyes on the horizon, says Sheikh Salman Jabor Al Thani, a leading Qatari astronomer and head of Astronomy Division at the Qatar Scientific Club.

The Peninsula reports:

With some 100 to 120 meteors expected per hour, stargazers here will be able to observe a few impressive bursts of light streaks at night, despite the moon’s obstruction.

“We might be able to see some 50 to 60 per hour, which is a good number. Sometimes people can be lucky enough to see fireballs which are due to larger debris as rocks enter the atmosphere. These can at times take 30 minutes or more to burn up. Majority of the particles are small grains and hence burn up in one or two minutes.

“If we are lucky, we can even see some fire works in the sky, which happens when the particles blow up. Three months ago few of the sky-watchers had witnessed this kind of spectacle here from Qatar,” Sheikh Al Thani said.

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And if you do check out the showers, please tell us about it! We’d love to hear your experiences.