If you have hope of seeing the aurora borealis, the famed Northern Lights, on Long Island on Friday night, guess again.

As Joseph Rao, guest lecturer at the Rose Center for Earth and Science at The Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan, said: "Sorry, but you ain't seeing nothing tonight."

The reason, Rao said, will be the brightest of Friday night lights over Long Island: the full moon.

And Rao and other astronomers contacted by Newsday said though the moon would be on the wane next week, it would impact the ability to see the annual Perseid meteor showers, scheduled to be at their peak in our night skies on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Perseids, caused as Earth travels through debris castoff in the trail of the comet Swift-Tuttle as it orbits the sun, generally fills the skies with as many as

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