Pictures: Perseid meteor shower graces West Berkshire skies

Eyes have been to the skies recently as West Berkshire residents try to catch a glimpse of a natural phenomenon.

The annual Perseid meteor shower – which peaks around mid-August – graced our skies over the past few nights.

According to Nasa, the ‘best meteor shower of the year’ is one of the most plentiful displays of its kind with about 50 to 100 meteors seen per hour.

With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long ‘wakes’ of light and colour behind them as they streak through Earth’s atmosphere.

Between around 12.30am and 5.30am the skies in the district were at their clearest and many caught the sight.

Many also managed to capture photos and videos of the meteors streaking over their homes and gardens.

The Perseid meteor shower is caused by Earth passing through debris in the sky that has been left behind by a comet.

Perseids appear like short bursts of flashing light as tiny bits of material from the comet in its orbit meet the Earth’s atmosphere at rapid speed.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich says that meteors in the Perseid shower are bright and fast and often leave trains as they sweep through.

While most of the comet’s rubble will each be no larger than a grain of sand, some larger particles, the size of peas or small pebbles, create the effect similar to that which we associate with the appearance of a shooting star.

Our photographer Phil Cannings was out to capture the beautiful display.