light pollution

The best time to spot the meteors will be when the skies are at their darkest and clearest so stay away from light pollution if you can.

In Los Angeles and other major cities where light pollution is pervasive, stargazers will have some difficulty seeing the shower despite the ideal weather conditions due to the light pollution from homes, businesses, streetlights and cars.

Light pollution from terrestrial sources has been a gradually growing menace to dark skies since the Industrial Revolution, as electrical lighting, explosive population growth, and dramatic increases in industry over the years have steadily brightened the sky while dimming the stars, especially near large urban centers.

"Ground-based light pollution has been growing with urbanization, but there's an inflection point just a couple of years ago due to the arrival of LED lights, which have made it much easier to make much more light with less energy," astronomer James Lowenthal, also a dark skies advocate and professor of astronomy in Northampton, Massachusetts, told Salon in a video interview.

The short wavelength blue light of LEDs bounces around more in the sky, intensifying the brightness of light pollution more than an equivalent amount of less blue light energy.