Peaking on Sunday night/Monday morning is the Perseid Meteor Shower. Every year about this time, our Earth sweeps through an old debris trail from Comet Swift - Tuttle. Grains of dust enters our planet's upper atmosphere at a staggering 40 miles per second. The tiny shock wave thusly generated heats the air around the grain, causing it to glow. This lasts for just a second or so.
To see this event, sit in a comfortable chair after 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night and face northeast, if you can. If you are lucky, the meteors zip by at a rate of 60 per hour. The source of the meteors on the celestial dome is just below the "w" of Cassiopeia.
Such is the view from Earth...
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