The Perseid meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus, because the meteors appear to emanate from a point, called the radiant, within Perseus.

Regardless of where you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the radiant begins the night low on the Northeast horizon, tossing very few shooting stars into view. As the night goes on, the radiant moves overhead, and opportunities improve. However, this year a bright last-quarter Moon will obscure fainter meteors in the pre-dawn hours, which otherwise is prime time for meteor watching.

"Despite the Moon it would be best to watch during the last few hours before morning twilight when the radiant lies high in the northern sky," Lunsford suggests. "It would be best to face away from the Moon, either to the north -- probably the best direction -- west or southwest."

A little patience can help, too. Astronomers suggest taking time to allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Binoculars and telescopes are of no use, because meteors move too quickly. But a lounge chair can come in handy and relieve neck strain.

Perseid meteors are known for a curious feature that careful viewing should reveal: "About half of them leave behind a trail of smoke, which can be visible for several seconds or more after the meteor has burned up," Conod said. And an occasional Perseid meteor will explode into a fireball, a bright momentary flash, but this meteor shower is not known for producing an abundance of such events.

Even the reliable Perseids can be unpredictable, at least within a range. In 1999, viewers had high hopes since there was no moonlight to spoil the show, but most people were disappointed by a low output of about 50 meteors per hour.

"I was fortunate to see 80 per hour during my last hour of observing on the West Coast," said Lunsford. "It was too light for a majority of North America to see this surge of activity."

But you never know.

"After the dismal show in 1999 there was not much hope in 2000 as the bright waxing gibbous Moon set only 2 hours before morning twilight on Aug. 12," Lunsford said. "Those who bothered to watch were treated to an excellent display as many observers counted 75 to 100 Perseids an hour."

"Each return of comet Swift-Tuttle is not exactly in the same location as previous ones," said Lunsford. "Each August the Earth skims the outer portions of these orbits. These orbits have been moving slowly inward toward the Sun."

Esko Lyytinen, a Finnish researcher, says that in 2004 Earth will for the first time in two millennia pass directly through a concentration of dust that Swift-Tuttle cast off in 1992.

"I expect in 2004 a short outburst may be approaching a small storm, but this prediction is quite uncertain," Lyytinen said via e-mail. Unfortunately, the brief but intense peak of the 2004 shower will likely occur during daylight in North America.

Looking farther ahead, the year 2028 may dazzle. Lyytinen said the planet will move through a dense trail left behind in 1479. "I expect this to produce a real storm over the United States, although under unfavorable moonlight conditions," he said.

This year's Perseids could be seen as a practice run, a chance to hone your meteor-watching skills for a truly spectacular event that could come later this year, in November.