Region's stargazers wowed by meteor show

Across the region, people turned into amateur astronomers as they looked out for the 'shooting stars', a result of the material falling from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle.

While the Perseids meteor shower is an annual event between mid-July and mid-August, the best views this year were expected to be last night, with as many as 60 meteors an hour visible to the naked eye.

Hundreds of people took to Twitter to talk about their stargazing experiences.

Michael Donaghy-Kent, from Sedgley said:

In Tettenhall, H4HJeepjunkies said:

Ashy from West Bromwich was delighted with the night sky scenes:

The Moon was in a waxing crescent, meaning its light did not significantly interfere with the view, the Royal Astronomical Society said.

The weather also helped, with clear skies over large swathes of the UK.

Meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, are the result of small particles entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed.

These heat the air around them, causing the characteristic streak of light seen from the ground.

They mostly appear as fleeting flashes lasting less than a second, but the brightest ones leave behind trails of vaporised gases and glowing air molecules that may take a few seconds to fade.

Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near the Earth in 1992, and will not visit again until the year 2125.

Weather expert Matt Dobson said: "Central and eastern England, southern Scotland and south east Wales would have had a really clear night, so I would have thought that if people had been out they would have at least caught a glimpse."

Astronomer and science writer Dr David Whitehouse said the spectacle was breathtaking.

He said: "The light from a shooting star is like no other type of light in the sky. It's not starlight, it's not moonlight, it's not sunlight.

"It has a ghostly sliver and a sleeting brilliance all of its own."