Possible Perseid meteor shower outburst is expected to peak late Thursday night and into early Friday morning.

Sky watchers all over the world look forward to August as the time of the Perseid meteor shower.

He expects the shower to be seen about 30 to 35 degrees above the horizon - with the size of a fist representing about 10 degrees, that's about three fists high. That's because Earth will pass through the center of the debris stream rather than the grazing encounter we experience in most years.

The Perseids are expected to offer one of the best meteor showers in years.

This year, Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Alabama predicts we could see as many as 200 meteors per hour, in flawless conditions. The meteor shower's name comes from the constellation Perseus, where the meteors appear to originate from in the night sky.

The night sky will be lit up with up to 200 shooting stars per hour, peaking tonight and into tomorrow morning.

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For those that do manage to catch a sight of them, the view will be twice as good this year as it normally is.

NASA says that the best time to see the shower is between midnight and the dawn of August 12. That heating creates the light we see as the meteor travels across the sky.

Each orbit takes 133 years, but debris is strewn from this comet when it is closest to the Sun and the comet's ices are warmed.

Allow about 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Just get away from as much city light as you can (not too hard for us in Arizona!).

The Minnesota Astronomical Society is also planning a viewing party starting at 9 p.m. Thursday at Eagle Lake Observatory in Norwood Young America.

The best place to watch the meteor shower is in the countryside or anywhere with a wide open sky.