These are "shooting Stars" which occur over several weeks in summer with the peak activity on August 12, one day after the eclipse in 1999. At the Greatest Point (Romania) the best views are by midnight August 12/13 The origin is from comet Swift-Tuttle which returns every 143 years or so, was back a few years ago (1992-93) and gave fantastic meteor rain (but no storm) in summer 1993. The yearly Perseid meteor shower is one of the best of the year, each year, with up to one hundred meteors per hour under ideal observing conditions. Activity from this meteor shower is visible from about July 23 until August 22. At the time of Maximum on August 12/13 (J2000 solar longitude=139.7 deg), the radiant is located at RA=47 deg, DECL=+57 deg. The hourly rate typically reaches 80, although some years have been as low as 4 and as high as 200. The meteors tend to be very fast, with an average magnitude of 2.3, and about 45% leave persistent trains. The radiant advances by a rate of 1.40 deg/day in RA and 0.25 deg/day in DECL. This is the most famous of all meteor showers. It never fails to provide an impressive display and, due to its summertime appearance, it tends to provide the majority of meteors seen by non-astronomy enthusiasts. The Perseids have been referred to as the "tears of St. Lawrence", since meteors seemed to be in abundance during the festival of that saint on August 10th, but credit for the discovery of the shower's annual appearance is given to Quetelet (Brussels), who, in 1835, reported that there was a shower occurring in August that emanated from the constellation Perseus.

A very good meteor and comet website with detailed information is from Gary Kronk http://medicine.wustl.edu/~kronkg/index.html (Tks to Oliver Staiger info)

In addition to the main radiant near Eta Persei, they confirmed the existence of the major radiants near Chi and Gamma Persei, as well as minor radiants near Alpha and Beta Persei. These meteor showers are generally short-lived and possess radiants that move nearly parallel to the main radiant. The following are summaries of the most consistent of the secondary Perseid radiants. ?The Gamma Perseids mainly occur during August 11 to 16 from an average radiant of RA=41 deg, DECL=+55 deg. The radiant diameter averages about 2 deg. Rates rise and decline with those of main radiant. ?The Chi Perseids occur during August 7 to 16 from an average radiant of RA=35 deg, DECL=+56 deg. The radiant diameter is about 2 deg. Maximum seems to occur between the 9th and 11th. ?The Alpha Perseids occur during August 7 to 24 from an average radiant of RA=51 deg, DECL=+50 deg. The radiant diameter averages about 1.5 deg. Maximum seems to occur somewhere between the 12th and 17th. ?The Beta Perseids occur during August 12 to 18 from an average radiant of RA=47 deg, DECL=+40 deg. The radiant diameter averages about 1 deg. Rates are irregular. Weakest branch of the Perseid cluster.