The Perseid meteor showers are beginning to peak, as they usually do around this time (August 10-12) every year. For stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere, the meteor shower is a must-see event, both because of its regularity and its brilliant fireballs and streaks of light—sometimes as many as 50 to 100 per hour. Featured VideoThe Perseids get their modern name from the constellation Perseus, where they appear to originate. To the Romans, the Perseids represented Priapus blessing the fields with his cosmic seed. You may be old enough to remember when Swift-Tuttle made its most recent pass by Earth in 1992, producing a particularly impressive Perseid meteor shower in its wake.