Perseids meteor shower will show hundreds of shooting stars across Europe   Stargazers across Britain were treated to a stunning lightshow overnight as hundreds of shooting stars filled the sky as the annual Perseids meteor shower neared its peak.Striking images emerged from the Midlands and the north of England as limited cloud cover allowed the hotly-anticipated meteor shower to light up the sky.The dazzling display will continue tonight and tomorrow, with the Perseids offering one of the greatest displays of the past seven years as the meteor shower coincides with a new moon for the first time since 2007.Tonight's show will also be enhanced by the International Space Station, which orbits earth every 90 minutes and will be visible for four minutes from 10.28pm.Scroll down for videoLast night's dazzling display was just the beginning of this year's Perseids meteor shower, with experts eagerly awaiting further stunning offerings tonight.Occurring yearly between July 17 and August 24, the Perseids reach their peak tonight with more than 100 meteors an hour expected to be produced. A similar show will occur on Thursday.Professor Mark Bailey, director of Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, called the Perseids the 'best and most reliable meteor shower of the year'.Mr Bailey added that the Perseids may produce an outburst of activity around 7.40pm tonight “ which comes slightly earlier in the evening than usual.Although it is still daylight at that time in the UK and Ireland, it is just possible that enhanced rates may persist for a few hours around this time and so be observable soon after dark, he said.The Met Office said cloud cover is expected to be minimal in the Midlands and the north of England, and advised those looking to see the bright streaks of light to head to rural spots.Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere will be treated to up to 100 shooting stars an hour, with the best viewing from around 11pm onward in the relative time zones.The best way to catch a glimpse of the light show is away from bright lights and big cities to minimise light pollution, and to let eyes adjust to the darkness for a few minutes.Members of Birmingham Astronomical Society are readying themselves to take advantage of the region's clear skies, with keen astronomer John Downing, 71, saying the 'moon will be the biggest factor'.He said: 'If it is a full moon then you can't see much but this year we've got a clear sky. We could be lucky and being able to see the ISS is an added bonus.' Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: 'The thing about shooting stars is they're a wonderful free spectacle we can all enjoy, assuming clear skies.'It's best to watch them from the countryside but even in town, these meteors are bright enough for a few to be visible.'The moon is out of the way which makes a lot of difference because the sky will be much darker all night. For every bright shooting star you see there are always fainter ones, and this will make it easier to see the fainter meteors and ring up the numbers.'The Perseids are usually fairly bright. Also, they tend to leave a trail, or train, behind them. You can see the train hanging there glowing in the sky for a few seconds - sometimes for several minutes - after the meteor has gone.'He also urged people to keep a special eye out for the International Space Station.'It will move from the west below the bright star Arcturus and then move towards the south, fading out as it passes into the Earth's shadow at 10.32pm,' he said.'And it will be the brightest thing in the sky, apart from aircraft. It'll be in mid sky from southern England and quite low in the sky from northern Scotland but still visible.'Meteors are the result of particles as small as a grain of sand entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed and burning up.They can appear anywhere but seem to emerge from a single point, or 'radiant'. The Perseid's radiant is in the north-east constellation of Perseus.The Perseids make an August appearance each year as the Earth passes through debris shed by the comet Swift-Tuttle. The streaks in the sky, sometimes known as shooting stars, are grains of dust and ice shed by the comet that enter the atmosphere at 37 miles per second (60 km/s).As they hit the atmosphere, friction causes them to burn up as they heat the air around them, causing the trails seen from the ground.The meteor show is named after the constellation Perseus, as when viewed from the ground the shower seems to come from a focal point, known as a radiant, in the constellation.Exceptionally dark skies will provide the best possible conditions for viewing the shooting stars this week due to an invisible new moon.This is the first time since 2007 that the shower has coincided with a new moon, offering the best visibility of the light show.The shower is active from around 17 July to 24 August but peaks between late evening on Wednesday and Thursday morning.