The earthgrazers can last several seconds, as opposed to the evanescent typical meteors.

A full moon, the kind whose light can splash off the white caps and turn the sands to silver, should add a dash of magic to one of the Jersey Shore's most popular weekends and offer a bonus night light for campers.

It also will dim the stars, and its remnants will upstage one of the year's most anticipated celestial events -- the peak of the Perseid meteor showers starting late Monday night. But the show will go on, as will another high drama.

The moon will reach the instant of 100% fullness around 4 a.m. Saturday, and still will be at about 85% of peak brightness when it rises on Monday evening.

The forecasts are calling for mostly clear and smoke-free skies, thus our personal satellite should burn brightly without that overcooked look of some recent nights.

But the annual Perseids, which occur when the cosmic debris of the Swift-Tuttle comet is electrified and illuminated as it encounters the earth's atmosphere, will not be a "complete loss" this year, said Robert Lunsford, with the American Meteor Society.

Lunsford sees "a small window of opportunity" on Tuesday night for spotting "earthgrazers," which have more staying power than typical meteor streaks and can last for several seconds.

That would be from about 8:30, when twilight decides to call it a night, and before the moon, which rises at 9:46 in Philly, "becomes overbearing," he said.

The meteors are called the Perseids because they appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, which at that time of night is low in the northern sky. The comet detritus will be positioned to "graze the upper atmosphere," Lunsford said.

The particular flight paths of the meteors are such that "instead of a quick streak," they will "create a long path in the night sky" that will "last several seconds," he added.

The meteoric particles, whose size ranges between that of a grain of sand and a pea, according to NASA, will be tracking north to south, appearing low in both the eastern and western sky.

Another window would be the during the predawn period when the moon has traveled south-southwest away from the meteor radiant, said Barry Johnson, with the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council. And some still will be visible Wednesday morning.

The absolute Perseid peak period is during the early morning hours of Tuesday when as many as 50 to 100 an hour can streak across the sky, but even in the best of dark-sky environments, don't even dream of seeing that many this year.

It's not in a league with the lights thrown skyward by the likes of South Philly, Center City, King of Prussia, and Wildwood, but the moon will be an obstruction.

If you happen to be awake then or a very early riser, you'll have a better shot at viewing one of another annual celestial highlight on Monday and Tuesday.

Come Monday and Tuesday morning, Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest stars among the planets, will appear to be almost close enough to kiss during the early-morning hours.

This is a so-called conjunction, which is more or less an illusion: They still will be several hundred million miles apart. They will just happen to be aligned in such away that they will look like neighbors for a few mornings.

This Venus-Jupiter "conjunction" is another event that occurs annually. Nevertheless, "it is spectacular," said Lundsford, "and worthy of some photographic attempts."

They rise between 3 and 4 a.m. Philadelphia time, he said, and are best seen closer to daybreak as they climb higher in the sky.

To see the Perseids, one need no special optical equipment. Telescopes and binoculars can enhance the views of Jupiter and Venus, but they also will be visible to the naked eye.

The harder parts may be staying awake, or getting up early, or finding dark skies that are becoming ever scarcer.

The skies aren't getting any darker these days as more and more light is being thrown skyward. "On the whole, sky glow has gotten worse over the past decade," said Johnson, noting that both the National Park Service and Globe at Night, an international night-sky advocacy group, "have found overall increases."

If you want to take a crack at catching the Perseid earthgrazers, you can try Valley Forge National Historical Park or French Creek State Park, in Elveron, a local mecca for stargazers.

At worst you'll be able to see the still impressive remnants of the "Sturgeon Moon," not a bad consolation prize.