Professional and amateur astronomers will be teaming up tonight to gather information about the origins and future of the Perseid meteor showers. The spectacle occurs every year when dust from a particular comet hits Earth’s atmosphere, visible as streaks of light shooting across the night sky.

Members of the International Meteor Organization (IMO), a group of amateur astronomers who are located around the world, will collect reports of meteor sightings made with the naked eye — aided by the new Moon, which will provide especially dark skies. The astronomers will collate their results using a standardized report form with details of timings, cloud cover and sky position, and the resulting global estimate of meteor distribution will complement the measurements of the professionals.

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