If these cloudy "summer" skies clear in time, stargazers and sky-watchers in the South Lakes - and all over the UK - will be able to enjoy a meteor shower in the night sky this weekend.

A "meteor" is a fancy astronomical term for a "shooting star", but they're actually nothing to do with stars at all. Shooting stars are in fact tiny pieces of space dust, usually the size of a lentil or a coffee grain, burning up far above our heads as they streak through the Earth's atmosphere.

On certain nights of the year we are guaranteed to see many more shooting stars than usual, because around a dozen times each year, Earth passes through concentrated streams of space dust, left behind by comets. When this happens, Earth encounters more dust, so we see more shooting stars. Sometimes we can see as many as a 100 every hour - and astronomers call this a "meteor shower".

The next meteor shower is due this weekend and it's called The Perseids, because the shooting stars appear to streak away from the constellation of Perseus. And because there will be no Moon to light the sky we should see lots of shooting stars - even faint ones will be visible.

The good news is you will not need a telescope, or even binoculars to view this show. In fact, telescopes are absolutely useless for watching shooting stars, because they magnify only a tiny part of the sky, and meteor-watchers need to be able to look at the whole sky in one go. All you will need are your own eyes, a dark place to look at the sky from - and no clouds spoiling the view.

To find out more see the Leisure section in this week's Westmorland Gazette.