The Perseid Meteor Shower is set to peak on the night of August 12 and early morning hours of August 13 AEST. It's a bit of a difficult one to spot in Australia as the radiant doesn't rise very far above the horizon in the Southern hemisphere. With that caveat out of the way, here are some tips to increase the odds of catching a meteor or two this week.

At approximately 12am tonight, the 2017 Perseid Meteor Shower is set to wow the world. Many eyewitnesses will use the words "meteor", "meteorite", "comet" and "asteroid" interchangeably to describe the celestial event they're seeing.

In reality, these are all completely different types of space rock. If you want to avoid a social faux pas tonight (or want to be the smarty-pants who corrects fellow stargazers), here's what sets each type apart.