meteor shower-yes, 2nite,peak in early hrs b4 dawn, eastern sky.. why are the meteors supposed to go DOWN ?

Question

I thought you'd see meteors appear to come out equally from all sides of a pt. of origin but I read that they will mostly go down from Perseus' head. Is this true? & why?

Answer 1

This meteors shower name is The Perseid's. That name comes from the constellation [*] from where apparently radiates the trajectories. (to compare, open your control panel and try the screen saver 'starfield'. The stars radiate from the screen center)
If you see the drops of a rain looking up, you would see as the drops radiate all from the same place. Without wind, the drops radiate from the zenith (90º to horizon). If you were moving fast in a car, you must see as the drops were coming from a place nearer the horizon.. The center from where the drops radiate is the result of the relative movement of the car and the drops.
The Earth is moving about 30 Km/sec in its orbit, and the dust is like a wide stream moving in a different orbit with their speed. In the time and place (when the Earth is in the crossroad) where both orbits intersects, you have the 'shower'. The radiating point for the meteors is the resultant of the speed and direction of both the dust and the Earth.

[*] Perseus Constellation is near Cassiopeia, Taurus and Aries. Actually is between Mars and Polaris. ►source

Answer 2

These meteors are from comet Swift-Tuttle which is located at the Perseus constellation(eastern sky now). So when the earth go through the tail dust (Perseid) of the comet we see it from that origin.

They can be seen all across the sky, but because of the path of Swift-Tuttle's orbit, Perseids are mostly visible on the northern hemisphere.

Answer 3

Maybe, perseus is shooting them out of his mouth.

Answer 4

That where they at I guess?