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Hemisphere, the first meteors - and possible earthgrazers - won't be flying until midnight or the wee hours of the morning. In either the Northern or the Southern Hemisphere, the greatest number of meteors peppers the sky in the dark hours before dawn.
• The paths of the Perseid meteors, when traced backward, appear to originate from the constellation Perseus. Hence, this meteor shower's name. However, you don't have to know the constellation Perseus to watch the Perseid meteor shower, for the Perseids fly every which way across the starry heavens. The radiant sits low in the northeast sky at evening and climbs upward throughout the night. The higher that the radiant is in your sky, the more Perseid meteors that you're likely to see.
• At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, the radiant of the Perseid meteor shower never gets very high in the sky. Therefore, the number of Perseid meteors seen from this part of the world isn't as great as at more northerly latitudes. But if you're game, look northward in the wee hours before dawn and you may still see a sprinkling of Perseids.
• The earliest historical account of Perseid activity comes from a Chinese record in 36AD, where it was said that "more than 100 meteors flew in the morning." Numerous references to the August Perseids appear in Chinese, Japanese and Korean records throughout the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. Meanwhile, according to ancient western skylore, the Perseid shower commemorates the time when the god Zeus visited the mortal maiden Danae in the form of a shower of gold. Zeus and Danae became the parents of Perseus the Hero - from whose constellation the Perseid meteors radiate.
• On a moonless night, the Perseids commonly produce 50 or more meteors per hour in our Northern Hemisphere sky. Totally moonless nights won't greet the 2012 Perseid shower, but even so, the waning crescent moon's presence in the early morning sky shouldn't really dampen the show too much. In fact, it'll be a glorious spectacle, seeing the lunar crescent near the planet Jupiter, and above the planet Venus in the predawn and dawn hours on Saturday, August 11, Sunday, August 12 and Monday, August 13. For most of Indonesia, the moon will actually occult - cover over Jupiter - before sunrise on August 12.
• The Perseid meteors happen around this time every year, as Earth in its orbit crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Dusty debris left behind by this comet smashes into Earth's upper atmosphere, lighting up the nighttime as fiery Perseid meteors. The meteors start out slowly in the evening hours, begin to pick up steam after midnight and put out the greatest numbers in the dark hours before dawn. The best viewing hours for this year's Perseid meteors will probably be from about 2 a.m. until dawn on August 11, 12 and 13.