Catherine McWatters typically watches the Perseid meteor shower from the comfort of her Toronto backyard with friends. 

The annual phenomenon is something the former astronomy educator looks forward to. But this year, due to the bright moon, she's not banking on a great view.

"Always when something interferes with something you want to observe, it's a sense of disappointment," she said. 

The Perseid meteor shower typically takes place once a year when the Earth plows through the debris from Comet …