METEORS will shimmer across Scotland tonight and tomorrow morning with Galloway's Dark Sky park expected to be the best place to see them.
Experts predict that some 60 shooting stars will be visible to the naked eye - weather permitting - as the annual Perseids shower takes place.
The Royal Astronomical Society thinks stargazers in the British Isles will get a particularly good look at the meteors, which are the result of cosmic pollution from a comet which last passed Earth in 1992.
"Comet Swift-Tuttle won't be visiting our neck of the woods again until the year 2125, but every year we get this beautiful reminder as the Earth ploughs through the debris it leaves," said Professor Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen's University Belfast.
"Every meteor is a speck of comet dust vaporising as it enters our atmosphere at 36 miles per second. What a glorious way to go."
Forestry Commission Scotland said its Galloway Forest Park - officially designated one of the world's four Dark Sky parks for stargazing, should be an ideal vantage point to view the meteor shower.
Keith Muir, head of tourism at Galloway Forest Park, said: "We hope we'll get a couple of clear nights because with the new dark-sky friendly lights being installed across the Dumfries and Galloway and the added bonus of the moon moving from a New Moon to first quarter phase, we'll have an extra-dark sky to make observing the Perseids easier and even more awe inspiring than usual."
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