How to see the Perseid meteor shower in the Channel Islands

One of the greatest meteor showers of the year will light up the sky this week.

If skies are clear, the Perseid meteor shower should be visible across the Channel Islands sky and will peak on Thursday 12 August.

The best views will be around midnight with up to 150 meteors per hour.

The astronomical event is associated with the dusty debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years.

What is the Perseid meteor shower

The meteors are shards that have come off the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet, as the pieces - some no bigger than a grain of sand - get closer to our atmosphere they begin to burn up producing the recognisable stream of light in the sky. Peak temperatures can reach anywhere from 1,648C to 5,537C as they speed across the sky.

The meteors are called Perseids because they seem to dart out of the constellation Perseus.