The museum added it expected the annual Perseid meteor event to be at its best between 11.30pm on Monday and 5am the next day.
“In Hong Kong, the radiant will rise in the northeast at about 10pm,” assistant curator Kenneth Chiu Kam-hung explained.
“There is a chance to see 15 to 20 meteors [each hour] in the countryside.”
Chiu said people should watch from areas with lower levels of light pollution for a better view, such as the Space Museum’s Astropark in Sai Kung, Tai Mei Tuk near Plover Cove Dam and the Tai Hang Tun kite-flying area in Clear Water Bay.
But he added that people who could not get out to see the event in person could instead watch a live broadcast on the museum’s YouTube channel and the LCSDPlusss Facebook page from 10pm to 11pm on Monday.
The annual meteorological event is named after the Perseids, the children of Perseus, a hero and monster slayer from ancient Greek mythology, because they emerge from the general direction of the constellation named after him.
The meteor shower is caused by the Earth passing through the tail of ice and rock left behind in space by the Swift-Tuttle comet, discovered in 1862 and known to be the largest object to pass by the planet repeatedly.The comet last passed the Earth in 1992 and will not make a comeback until 2126.
Britain’s National Space Centre said the Perseid meteor shower was “one of the most prolific” of the year, with around 100 visible an hour in good viewing conditions.
But in years without moonlight, such as 2016, the rate can reach 150 to 200 meteors an hour.
Another meteor show, the Geminid shower, is expected to be visible in December.
The Quadrantid meteor shower will appear between late December and mid-January next year.
The three are the best-known and biggest meteor showers in the northern hemisphere.
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