Perseid Meteor Shower 2025: Where and When to Look For it

The Perseid meteor shower peaks overnight on August 12–13, 2026. This year’s peak coincides with a New Moon, so there will be virtually no moonlight to wash out the fainter meteors.

You do not need a telescope or binoculars to enjoy the Perseids. In fact, your naked eyes are best because they allow you to take in as much of the sky as possible.

For the best view, get away from city lights, find a location with an open sky, and give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness.

2026 Perseid Meteor Shower:

The Perseids peak from Wednesday night, August 12, into Thursday morning, August 13, 2026. Start watching around 10 p.m. and continue after midnight, when the radiant climbs higher and meteor rates generally improve.

A New Moon will keep the sky exceptionally dark. No telescope is needed—bring a reclining chair, look up, and take in as much sky as possible.

“The Perseid Rain over the Kolonica Saddle” by Petr Horálek (2015).

Czech astrophotographer Petr Horálek captured this image with a Canon 6D IR Baader-modified camera and Sigma 15mm lens. The final picture is a composite combining multiple exposures of the sky and foreground.

Related Post: Recommended Cameras for Astrophotography

When Is the Perseid Meteor Shower in 2026?

The Perseids are active from July 17 through August 24, but the highest activity is expected overnight on August 12–13. The International Meteor Organization predicts the traditional maximum around 02:00–04:00 UTC on August 13. That corresponds to 10 p.m.–midnight EDT on August 12.

Do not stop watching at midnight, though. Across the Northern Hemisphere, Perseus climbs higher as the night continues, so the hours after midnight through dawn can still provide an excellent view. The nights immediately before and after the peak are also worth watching if clouds interfere on August 12.

The timing is especially favorable in 2026 because the New Moon occurs on August 12. With no bright moonlight competing with the shower, both bright fireballs and fainter meteors will be easier to see from a dark location.

Where Should You Look?

The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus. To find it, first locate the recognizable “W” shape of Cassiopeia. Perseus lies nearby, below Cassiopeia in the northeastern sky during the evening.

The radiant point of the Perseid meteor shower. Trevor Jones.

The constellation is not the physical source of the meteors. It simply marks the radiant—the point from which the meteor trails appear to spread across the sky.

You do not need to stare directly at Perseus. Meteors can appear anywhere, and the trails often look longer farther from the radiant. For visual observing, lean back and watch a broad area of sky roughly halfway between the radiant and straight overhead. The most important thing is to choose the darkest, clearest, and most unobstructed part of your sky.

The radiant point of the Perseid meteor shower. Sky & Telescope.

How Many Meteors Will You See?

The Perseids are one of the most reliable meteor showers of the year and are known for fast, bright meteors and occasional fireballs. The shower has a listed zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of 100, but this number describes ideal conditions with the radiant directly overhead and a perfectly dark, clear sky.

Your actual count will likely be lower and will depend on light pollution, cloud cover, the radiant’s height, and how much of the sky you can see. The International Meteor Organization also notes that the normal background activity may be lower than the often-quoted ZHR of 100 in 2026. Even so, the moonless sky makes this an excellent year to watch.

Perseid Meteor Shower at Dinosaur Provincial Park by Alan Dyer.

The warm August weather makes the Perseids particularly enjoyable. Use an astronomy app to identify Perseus and plan where the radiant will be from your location. If you want to photograph the shower, the PhotoPills app can help you plan the radiant position and your composition.

The Perseid Fireball 2018. Tang Zhengye (China).

What Causes the Perseid Meteor Shower?

The Perseids occur when Earth passes through a stream of dust and small particles left behind by Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle. These particles strike our atmosphere at about 59 kilometers per second and heat the surrounding air, creating the bright streaks commonly called “shooting stars.”

The constellation Perseus only gives the shower its name. The meteors occur in Earth’s atmosphere; they do not come from the stars in Perseus.

Perseid Meteor Shower Viewing Tips

You do not need any special equipment. Binoculars and telescopes show only a small area of sky, making them less useful for watching meteors.

Find darker skies: Light pollution hides faint meteors. If you cannot leave the city, turn off nearby lights and position yourself where buildings or trees block streetlights.
Start around 10 p.m.: Meteors are visible earlier, but rates generally improve as Perseus climbs higher. Stay out after midnight if possible.
Let your eyes adjust: Allow at least 30 minutes for dark adaptation and avoid looking at bright phone screens.
Use a dim red light: A red flashlight or headlamp will help preserve your night vision.
Watch a wide area: Look up rather than directly at the radiant. Choose a clear area of sky about halfway between Perseus and the zenith.
Get comfortable: Bring a reclining lawn chair or blanket, bug spray, warm layers, and a little patience. Meteor activity often arrives in bursts with quiet periods in between.

The constellation Perseus is surrounded by some fantastic deep-sky objects.

How to Photograph the Perseid Meteor Shower

A DSLR or mirrorless camera, wide-angle lens, and sturdy tripod are all you need to get started. The goal is to run a continuous sequence of exposures so the camera is ready when a meteor crosses the frame.

A DSLR or mirrorless camera with a wide-angle lens is ideal for photographing a meteor shower.

A modern smartphone in a tripod-mounted night or manual mode may capture a bright fireball, but a dedicated camera gives you much more control and generally produces better low-light results. See my smartphone astrophotography guide for practical tips.

Suggested Camera Settings

Use these settings as a starting point and adjust them for your lens, sky brightness, and camera:

Lens: 14–24mm on a full-frame camera, or a similarly wide field of view
Aperture: f/1.4–f/2.8, or the widest usable setting on your lens
Shutter speed: 10–20 seconds, short enough to keep the stars reasonably sharp
ISO: 1600–3200
Focus: Manual focus, checked on a bright star using magnified live view
File format: RAW
White balance: A fixed setting such as 3800–4200K, which can be refined later when shooting RAW

Frame a large area of sky rather than aiming the camera directly at Perseus. Pointing about 40–60 degrees away from the radiant can capture longer meteor trails, but a strong foreground composition and a dark, unobstructed sky are just as important.

Take a test image, inspect the stars and histogram, and then run continuous exposures for several hours without moving the camera.

Automate Your Imaging Session

A simple intervalometer will let the camera take one exposure after another with only a one-second gap. Turn off long-exposure noise reduction so the camera does not pause for a dark frame after every photo.

Use a simple remote shutter cable (intervalometer) to automate a continuous series of exposures.

Some cameras include a built-in interval timer. You can also use programs such as BackyardEOS, Astro Photography Tool, or N.I.N.A. to automate the sequence. Before starting, confirm that your memory card has plenty of free space and use a fully charged battery, spare batteries, or an external power source.

Creating a Meteor Shower Composite

The following tutorial explains how to combine the meteors you captured into a single composite image.

Choose your framing carefully and do not move the camera during the sequence. Keeping the composition fixed makes it much easier to combine your meteor frames later.

A meteor shower composite image by Leo Lam.

After Your Imaging Session

Find the meteor frames: Review your sequence and flag every image containing a meteor. Satellites and airplanes usually form consistent lines across multiple frames, while meteors often have tapered or uneven trails and appear in only one frame.
Create a clean base image: Process one strong exposure or stack several consecutive images for a lower-noise view of the sky and foreground.
Align the meteor frames: If the camera was fixed on a tripod, the stars will shift throughout the night. Align each selected frame to the base sky before blending it.
Blend the meteors: Add the aligned meteor frames as layers in Photoshop and use the Lighten blending mode to reveal the bright trails.
Keep the radiant geometry honest: When building a radiant composite, rotate or align the meteor layers with the stars so the trails accurately point back toward Perseus.

Review your files to identify the individual frames containing meteors.

The combination of a reliable shower, warm summer weather, and a moonless sky makes August 12–13 an excellent night to get outside. Clear skies, and enjoy the 2026 Perseids!

Trevor Jones is a deep-sky astrophotographer and a valued member of the RASC. His passion is inspiring others to start their astrophotography journey on his YouTube Channel so they can appreciate the night sky as much as he does. His images have been featured in astronomy books and online publications, including the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).

Perseid Meteor Shower 2026: When and Where to Watch