The Perseids peak on 13 August. The best night depends on where you are.
The best night is 12–13 August in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia, and 13–14 August in most of Oceania. The moon is 80–90% lit and sets before dawn in 86 of 87 cities. The radiant, in Perseus, stands highest before dawn: from a dark site, expect about 77 meteors an hour at best in most of them, and up to 88 where it climbs highest.
Where you are
Your placeWorked out when the page opens
Dark sky—
The moon—
When to watch—
The radiant—
At a dark site—
The Americas
Atlanta12–13 Aug · 3:24 – 5:26 AM · radiant 58° up · about 81 an hour
Austin12–13 Aug · 3:30 – 5:29 AM · radiant 56° up · about 77 an hour
Bogotá12–13 Aug · 2:52 – 4:41 AM · radiant 35° up · about 55 an hour
Boston12–13 Aug · 1:57 – 4:00 AM · radiant 62° up · about 88 an hour
Buenos Aires12–13 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Chicago12–13 Aug · 2:08 – 4:09 AM · radiant 61° up · about 85 an hour
Dallas12–13 Aug · 3:19 – 5:19 AM · radiant 58° up · about 78 an hour
Denver12–13 Aug · 2:29 – 4:27 AM · radiant 61° up · about 81 an hour
Houston12–13 Aug · 3:22 – 5:21 AM · radiant 56° up · about 77 an hour
Las Vegas12–13 Aug · 2:24 – 4:21 AM · radiant 60° up · about 77 an hour
Lima12–13 Aug · 3:38 – 5:10 AM · radiant 19° up · about 31 an hour
Los Angeles12–13 Aug · 2:44 – 4:41 AM · radiant 59° up · about 75 an hour
Mexico City12–13 Aug · 3:04 – 4:59 AM · radiant 48° up · about 67 an hour
Miami12–13 Aug · 3:29 – 5:30 AM · radiant 53° up · about 76 an hour
Minneapolis12–13 Aug · 2:18 – 4:16 AM · radiant 62° up · about 85 an hour
Montréal12–13 Aug · 1:54 – 3:54 AM · radiant 62° up · about 88 an hour
Nashville12–13 Aug · 2:26 – 4:28 AM · radiant 60° up · about 82 an hour
New Orleans12–13 Aug · 2:59 – 5:00 AM · radiant 57° up · about 78 an hour
New York12–13 Aug · 2:16 – 4:19 AM · radiant 62° up · about 87 an hour
Philadelphia12–13 Aug · 2:24 – 4:27 AM · radiant 61° up · about 87 an hour
Phoenix12–13 Aug · 2:20 – 4:18 AM · radiant 59° up · about 76 an hour
Portland12–13 Aug · 2:18 – 4:10 AM · radiant 62° up · about 79 an hour
Rio de Janeiro12–13 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Salt Lake City12–13 Aug · 2:54 – 4:51 AM · radiant 62° up · about 80 an hour
San Diego12–13 Aug · 2:44 – 4:40 AM · radiant 58° up · about 75 an hour
San Francisco12–13 Aug · 2:49 – 4:45 AM · radiant 60° up · about 76 an hour
Santiago12–13 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
São Paulo12–13 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Seattle12–13 Aug · 2:06 – 3:56 AM · radiant 61° up · about 79 an hour
Toronto12–13 Aug · 2:26 – 4:27 AM · radiant 62° up · about 87 an hour
Vancouver12–13 Aug · 2:00 – 3:47 AM · radiant 61° up · about 79 an hour
Washington, DC12–13 Aug · 2:36 – 4:39 AM · radiant 61° up · about 86 an hour
Europe
Amsterdam12–13 Aug · 1:45 – 3:45 AM · radiant 58° up · about 76 an hour
Athens12–13 Aug · 2:40 – 4:59 AM · radiant 61° up · about 78 an hour
Barcelona12–13 Aug · 2:57 – 5:11 AM · radiant 62° up · about 80 an hour
Berlin12–13 Aug · 1:09 – 3:09 AM · radiant 59° up · about 75 an hour
Brussels12–13 Aug · 1:58 – 4:03 AM · radiant 60° up · about 77 an hour
Copenhagen12–13 Aug · 12:45 – 2:24 AM · radiant 54° up · about 70 an hour
Dublin12–13 Aug · 1:24 – 3:18 AM · radiant 58° up · about 76 an hour
Edinburgh12–13 Aug · 12:48 – 2:21 AM · radiant 53° up · about 71 an hour
Hamburg12–13 Aug · 1:15 – 3:10 AM · radiant 57° up · about 74 an hour
Helsinki12–13 Aug · 11:54 PM – 3:12 AM · radiant 61° up · about 75 an hour
Istanbul12–13 Aug · 2:07 – 4:26 AM · radiant 61° up · about 77 an hour
Lisbon12–13 Aug · 2:54 – 5:08 AM · radiant 61° up · about 81 an hour
London12–13 Aug · 1:12 – 3:14 AM · radiant 59° up · about 77 an hour
Madrid12–13 Aug · 3:25 – 5:39 AM · radiant 61° up · about 81 an hour
Milan12–13 Aug · 2:09 – 4:22 AM · radiant 62° up · about 79 an hour
Moscow12–13 Aug · 11:59 PM – 1:42 AM · radiant 54° up · about 68 an hour
Munich12–13 Aug · 1:45 – 3:56 AM · radiant 61° up · about 78 an hour
Nice12–13 Aug · 2:25 – 4:40 AM · radiant 62° up · about 80 an hour
Oslo12–13 Aug · 11:58 PM – 3:13 AM · radiant 61° up · about 77 an hour
Paris12–13 Aug · 2:19 – 4:27 AM · radiant 61° up · about 79 an hour
Porto12–13 Aug · 2:43 – 4:55 AM · radiant 61° up · about 81 an hour
Prague12–13 Aug · 1:21 – 3:29 AM · radiant 60° up · about 77 an hour
Reykjavík12–13 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Rome12–13 Aug · 2:12 – 4:28 AM · radiant 61° up · about 79 an hour
Stockholm12–13 Aug · 11:37 PM – 2:52 AM · radiant 62° up · about 77 an hour
Venice12–13 Aug · 1:56 – 4:10 AM · radiant 62° up · about 79 an hour
Vienna12–13 Aug · 1:24 – 3:36 AM · radiant 61° up · about 78 an hour
Warsaw12–13 Aug · 12:39 – 2:42 AM · radiant 58° up · about 74 an hour
Zürich12–13 Aug · 2:02 – 4:13 AM · radiant 61° up · about 78 an hour
Africa
Cairo12–13 Aug · 2:35 – 4:54 AM · radiant 56° up · about 74 an hour
Cape Town12–13 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Lagos12–13 Aug · 3:27 – 5:29 AM · radiant 37° up · about 56 an hour
Marrakesh12–13 Aug · 3:13 – 5:26 AM · radiant 57° up · about 79 an hour
Nairobi12–13 Aug · 3:25 – 5:24 AM · radiant 30° up · about 44 an hour
Asia
Bali12–13 Aug · 3:16 – 5:18 AM · radiant 23° up · about 32 an hour
Bangkok12–13 Aug · 2:29 – 4:50 AM · radiant 44° up · about 57 an hour
Beijing12–13 Aug · 1:08 – 3:40 AM · radiant 61° up · about 69 an hour
Bengaluru12–13 Aug · 2:35 – 4:53 AM · radiant 43° up · about 58 an hour
Delhi12–13 Aug · 1:58 – 4:23 AM · radiant 55° up · about 69 an hour
Hong Kong12–13 Aug · 2:12 – 4:40 AM · radiant 51° up · about 63 an hour
Kyoto12–13 Aug · 1:05 – 3:41 AM · radiant 59° up · about 67 an hour
Mumbai12–13 Aug · 2:41 – 5:01 AM · radiant 48° up · about 63 an hour
Osaka12–13 Aug · 1:08 – 3:43 AM · radiant 59° up · about 67 an hour
Seoul12–13 Aug · 1:33 – 4:07 AM · radiant 60° up · about 68 an hour
Shanghai12–13 Aug · 1:17 – 3:49 AM · radiant 57° up · about 67 an hour
Singapore12–13 Aug · 3:42 – 5:53 AM · radiant 32° up · about 44 an hour
Taipei12–13 Aug · 1:34 – 4:04 AM · radiant 53° up · about 64 an hour
Tel Aviv12–13 Aug · 2:14 – 4:34 AM · radiant 58° up · about 75 an hour
Tokyo12–13 Aug · 12:47 – 3:23 AM · radiant 60° up · about 67 an hour
Oceania
Auckland13–14 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Brisbane13–14 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Honolulu12–13 Aug · 3:03 – 4:50 AM · radiant 50° up · about 60 an hour
Melbourne13–14 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Perth13–14 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
Sydney13–14 Aug · No dark sky with the radiant up
How it is worked out
The showerThe International Meteor Organization puts the Perseids’ rate at 100 an hour at the peak, for a radiant overhead under a perfectly dark sky. The rate here falls away on either side of the peak as the organization’s profile does.
The nightThe peak is an instant, 2027-08-13 08:10 UTC this time. Each place’s night is the one, of the three around it, whose best hour shows the most meteors.
The radiantThe radiant is the point the meteors seem to come from, in Perseus, at +58° of declination. The higher it stands, the more meteors reach your sky: the rate here is the shower’s times the sine of its height.
The dark and the moonDark is the sun 18° below the horizon. The moon’s light hides the fainter meteors, so the hours to watch are the dark ones after it sets, read through the night to the minute.
Your own skyThe rates are for a dark site with a clear sky. Street lights hide most meteors, so a town shows far fewer, and cloud shows none.
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