Families trade screens for stargazing as Perseid meteors illuminate Sharjah desert.
Sharjah: Dinner wrapped up shortly before 9pm on Thursday as the lights at the Mleiha Eye Lounge were dimmed and several hundred visitors settled onto carpets, looking up at the night sky.
For the next four hours, until 1am, they waited for flashes of light as meteors streaked across the sky.
The gathering was part of Mleiha National Park’s annual Perseids night, held to coincide with the meteor shower’s peak overnight on August 13.
Spent the evening at the event with Nirmal Rajah, the park’s head of tours, who led the stargazing session.
What you are watching
“The Perseid meteor shower is one of the year’s most prominent and fascinating astronomical events,” Rajah said.
“This is when we can see hundreds of meteors in a single evening. They are all tiny dust particles left behind along the trail of a comet called Swift-Tuttle,” Rajah explained.
Earth passes through this debris trail every August. As the planet moves through the cloud of particles, they enter the atmosphere at high speed, producing the bright streaks commonly known as shooting stars.
The particles travel at roughly 59 kilometres per second as they encounter the upper atmosphere. The resulting process, known as ablation, causes them to glow brightly for only a brief moment.
One or two on a normal night, up to 100 at the peak
“We do see shooting stars almost every day. On any random night, if you go outside, you might spot one or two,” Rajah said.
“But during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, you can expect to see at least 100 meteors an hour.”
There is still another major meteor shower to look forward to this year. Rajah said the Geminid meteor shower is expected to peak on December 14.
A guided stargazing experience
“This is a curated experience where we give visitors an understanding of why the event occurs, along with the science behind meteor showers, meteors, comets and asteroids,” Rajah said.
The observation session was designed as an interactive conversation rather than a formal presentation. Visitors were guided through the event, with participants encouraged to record the number and colours of meteors they spotted. Children also took part in quizzes throughout the night.
Nine- and 11-inch telescopes with 150x magnification
The park uses Cassegrain telescopes measuring nine and 11 inches, Rajah said.
The computerised, high-definition telescopes can automatically locate thousands of objects across the night sky, allowing visitors to explore distant celestial bodies with just a few commands.
The telescopes are aligned and programmed before guests arrive.
“We programme the computers and align them to this location. If you want to view a particular object, you simply tell the computer what to look for, and it automatically moves into position,” Rajah explained.
The instruments offer magnification ranging from 100x to 150x, allowing visitors to get a closer look at objects across the night sky.
The wait proved worthwhile.
“Tonight, we saw several stars, including Vega and the double star Albireo,” Rajah said.
“We also spotted Venus earlier in the evening, as well as Saturn and some of its moons.”
Everyone stayed past midnight
August is hardly the most comfortable month for spending hours outdoors in the UAE. Yet the heat did little to deter the crowd, with visitors continuing to stay and watch the sky well past midnight.
“This time, we had a particularly large turnout, and the children were remarkably engaged despite the challenging weather conditions,” Rajah said.
“What was even more encouraging was how absorbed everyone became. The weather did not deter them. They came for the knowledge and the astronomy, and that is exactly what they experienced.”
Rajah said the event offered more than a chance to admire the night sky.
“It’s not just something beautiful; it’s also very encouraging. At a time when people can easily get distracted by everything the internet has to offer, we deliberately gave them an opportunity to step away from it,” he said.
“They stayed disconnected from the internet, but connected to the universe.”
