The year’s most prolific display of “shooting stars,” the Perseid meteor shower, will peak next week, but conditions will not be ideal. With a bright moon bringing significant natural light pollution to the sky, only a handful of the 50-75 meteors per hour are expected to be visible overnight on Aug. 12-13. Despite that, this peak night will be the best night of the year to see the Perseid meteor shower.
Under a moonless dark sky away from light pollution, the Perseids can produce up to 75 meteors per hour on the peak night — more than one meteor per minute.
This year, an 84%-lit moon will rise shortly after it gets dark on Aug.12 and remain in the night sky all night. The moonlight will significantly reduce the number of meteors visible, though the moon will remain rather low on the southern horizon.
Although rates are likely to be vastly reduced, the Perseids do produce some bright “fireballs” that ought to still be visible, if skies are clear. There will be a short window of opportunity in the evening of Aug. 15 to watch for Perseids in moonless night skies, though since the Perseids have a steep peak and trough, don’t expect to see more than a handful of shooting stars.
Perseid meteors move very fast, striking Earth’s upper atmosphere at around 133,000 mph. That can sometimes cause a bright flash and a long trail that’s visible for a split second.
The Perseids are caused by dust particles from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which last visited the inner solar system in 1992. It takes 133 years to orbit the sun.
Seeing a “shooting star” requires patience — and for the Persieds in 2025, perhaps even more than usual. The best way to watch a meteor shower is to get out of the city, away from urban light pollution, according to NASA, such as a Dark Sky Place or somewhere found by using a light pollution map. Once in-situ, allow at least 20-30 minutes for your eyes to adjust before you start to wonder where the meteors are. Never look at your smartphone, whose bright light will instantly remove your night vision.
Tuesday, Aug. 12, is marked in the calendars of skywatchers for something other than the peak of the Perseid meteor shower this year. Rise an hour before sunrise and look to the east-northeast to see Venus and Jupiter less than a degree apart — the width of a finger held at arm’s length against the sky.
The Perseids are the most popular meteor shower of the year in the Northern Hemisphere because they peak during August, when camping trips are popular and practical. However, the strongest meteor shower of the year is December’s Gemini meteor shower. Running from Dec. 7 through Dec. 17 and peaking overnight on Dec. 13-14 this year, the Geminids can produce up to 120 meteors per hour at their peak. This year, that peak will occur in a moonless night sky, with only a slim waning crescent moon rising in the early hours of Dec. 14. It’s also the only annual meteor shower known to be produced by a meteor, called 3200 Phaethon.