The date is one day before the maximum of the Perseids, which is expected on the night of 12 to 13 August. The moon will not rise until around 2 hours after midnight on the evening of the observation, so there will be no moonlight to interfere.
The radiant of the Perseids, the best-known and most prolific stream of shooting stars of the year, lies in Perseus on the border with Cassiopeia. With a speed of around 60 km/sec, the Perseids are among the faster shooting stars. Up to 100 meteors per hour could be seen at the maximum, and around 50 per hour in the days before and after.
The meteor stream can be traced back to comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. In mid-August, the Earth always crosses the dust trail of the former comet on its orbit around the sun. When these dust particles hit the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, they cause air molecules to glow, which we perceive as meteors.
