The Perseid meteor shower has had enthusiastic star-gazers looking to the skies around the world, but for those who've missed out, don't worry it's not quite over. Every year the earth spins through the tail of a comet which throws small debris through the outer reaches of our atmosphere. The debris is only small, with the tiny pieces of rock only weighing about the same as a paperclip. But despite their size, the debris encounters our atmosphere at immense speeds of up to 200,000 km/h. The atmosphere acts like very thick syrup at these speeds causing the rocks to burn brightly across the sky. This year the shower is expected to last until August 24, but the 'peak' of the shower occurred during the last couple of days. This is when the most number of shooting stars per hour can be seen. Over the next few nights meteors will get fewer and further between, but sky conditions across Australia present more opportunities for stargazing. High pressure will cover the nation at the weekend providing plenty of clear skies tonight and Saturday night. Tonight, cloud over northern VIC, southern NSW and eastern SA will make stargazing a little trickier, but this is expected to be clearer for Saturday night. Make sure you get outside of the bigger cities to avoid the light pollution and spot the brightest stars. The moon is giving a helping hand too; not only is it a new moon but it is setting in the evenings bringing dark, moonless night’ s.