The Perseid meteor shower, when Italians gaze skywards and make a wish on martyr St Lawrence's tears, is to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, experts said on Sunday, which was his actual feast day and marks The Night of St Lawrence proper.
"After a nearly ideal 2024, observing conditions for the Perseids in 2025 will be decidedly less favorable.
The Moon will be full on the morning of August 9th, three days before its maximum, expected in the late hours of the night between August 12th and 13th, when our satellite will be very invasive, thus spoiling the party," said astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project.
This doesn't mean, however, that the brightest meteors, about ten per hour, won't be visible—a number obviously dependent on weather conditions and the presence of light sources.
These aren't shooting stars, but rather small particles left behind by the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle during its periodic passages around the Sun.
As they penetrate Earth's atmosphere at great speed, they burn up due to friction, leaving their characteristic trail in the sky.
"The meteors will be observable at any time," Masi added, "but in the second half of the night there will be a significant increase, since at dawn the observer is on the part of the Earth advancing along its orbit towards the comet dust, so it is as if he were seeing through the "windshield" rather than the rear "window" of our planet." The night of August 10 is dedicated to Saint Lawrence, a deacon and martyr who died in Rome on August 10th, 258 AD.
A popular legend says that the shooting stars are the tears he shed during his martyrdom.
A common tradition is to go out and look for shooting stars on this night and make a wish upon seeing one, believing that the wish will come true.
Many Italian towns and cities organize events, festivals, and fireworks displays on the night of San Lorenzo, making it a popular summer tradition.
The event was the backdrop to a 1982 film by the Taviani brothers, La Notte di San Lorenzo, which won an award at Cannes, and also features in a song by singer-songwriter Franco Simone.
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