On any dark, moonless night you will see the occasional meteor or 'shooting star' - these random shooting stars are called sporadic meteors - but at certain times of the year they are much more numerous and we see a meteor shower.
To find out if a meteor shower might be in progress select Meteor showers from the Daily reports menu:
A window pops up containing nine panels, one for each of the major meteor showers which occur during a year. Any showers in progress are highlighted as shown.
The name of the shower is given together with the dates during which it is normally active. By far the best time to experience a shower is close to the date of Maximum activity.
Unlike sporadic meteors, the meteors in a shower appear to come from one small area of the sky called the radiant. The Perseids shower, for example, is so-called because its radiant is in the constellation of Persius. An observer is likely to see far more meteors if the radiant is high above the horizon and the sky, is very dark.
The strength of a shower is measured by its zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) which is the number of meteors per hour that a single observer might expect to see if the radiant was directly overhead in a dark sky at the time of maximum activity.
See also: Meteor showers: where to look