The Best Time To Watch the 2011 Perseid Meteor Shower

If you're still awake, you might want to go outside soon and look straight up.

Though the Perseid meteor shower is almost entirely obscured by a full moon, the best time to see an occasional streaking light in the sky is between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., according to Monrovia astronomer Morris Jones.

Jones, who co-founded the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers, said the ideal time for meteor sightings is 2 a.m., so if you're reading this at publication time, you still have a shot. If you want to see it through NASA's lens, go here.

Perseid is a meteor shower that happens annually and has been observed for the last 2,000 years, according to the NASA website. It is related to the comet "Swift-Tuttle," which orbits the sun every 133 years, the website says.