Perseid meteor shower creates spectacular scenes - in pictures

The event returns to the skies every August

A girl lies in a hammock as she looks at the milky way during the peak of Perseid meteor shower in Kozjak, Macedonia. Reuters

People wait to observe the annual Perseid meteor shower at the east dam of the High Island Reservoir in Hong Kong. AFP

A meteor streaks through the sky during the Perseid meteor shower above the village of Hajnacka, Slovakia. EPA

Cars drive through Ramon Crater during the Perseid meteor shower near the town of Mitzpe Ramon, southern Israel. Reuters

Meteors streaks through the night sky during the Perseid meteor shower over the lake of Kozjak, some 45km from the capitol Skopje, Macedonia. EPA

A meteor from the Perseids meteor shower burns up in the atmosphere behind a Catholic church near the village of Bogushevichi, Belarus. EPA

Perseid meteors streaks across the sky over the radar near the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic in Ondrejov, Czech Republic. EPA

A meteor streaks past the Milky Way in the night sky above Leeberg hill during the Perseid meteor shower in Grossmugl, Austria. Reuters

A meteor shower lit up the skies above Europe, giving star gazers a rare opportunity to see a display of shooting stars with the naked eye.

"I think that everybody should see this," said Miralem Mehic, a Bosnian from an international group of star gazers who watched the light show at the Sand Pyramids - an area of naturally occurring sand columns - near the town of Foca.

The so-called Perseid meteor shower returns to the skies every August, and are best viewed in the northern hemisphere in isolated areas where there is little light pollution.

They arise when the Earth passes through the debris of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862.

Meteors are parts of rock and dust that hit the Earth's atmosphere, heat up and glow. Most vaporise as they descend, but some explode.

"This year the moon is young and will not obstruct the vision, so we will be able to see 100 'shooting stars' an hour," Muhamed Muminovic, a member of the Sarajevo Orion astrological society, told Reuters.

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