The Perseids Meteor Shower Peaks This Week: Here's When to Look Up

Don’t let a dazzling Moon put you off the year’s standout meteor shower: the 2025 Perseids.

Each August brings balmy evenings and late-summer campers, all waiting for that reliable “Old Faithful” of annual meteor showers - the August Perseids.

In 2025, the display also reaches its maximum close to the Full Moon; however, with a touch of forethought and a bit of patience, you can still see the shower at its finest.

Perseid Prospects for 2025

The Perseid radiant climbs into view in the north-east around local midnight. The 2025 peak is expected close to 12 August at 03:00 Universal Time (UT), which favours northern Europe around sunrise. North America turns into the stream roughly 4–6 hours afterwards.

As your observing location rotates into the oncoming debris, rates should build towards local dawn, with totals reaching about 50–100 per hour. Picture a car (Earth) hurtling along a motorway: the insects (meteors) strike the front windscreen.

You’ll know you’ve spotted a Perseid if you can extend the meteor’s track backwards to the shower’s radiant, near the Perseus–Cassiopeia boundary.

While you’re on meteor “dawn patrol”, look out for a planetary line-up too: Mercury low in the east, Saturn high in the south, and Jupiter and Venus appearing very close together on the morning of the 12th.

The shower originates from the periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle discovered it in July 1862, and recorded appearances stretch back as far as Chinese observations in 322 BCE. The comet also became notable as the first to be connected to an annual meteor shower.

Comet Swift-Tuttle follows a 133 year orbit, last reaching perihelion on 12 December 1992 - when Perseid rates increased. Swift-Tuttle will not return to the inner Solar System until 2126.

Now for the downside: the waning gibbous Moon, illuminated at (-90%), will sit nearby in Pisces around the 12th, only 3 days after the full phase on 9 August.

That bright moonlight will reduce the number of faint meteors you can pick out, but it shouldn’t stop you from pursuing the shower.

The Perseids are often dubbed the “Tears of Saint Lawrence,” referring to the saint of that name who was martyred on 10 August 258 CE. There is evidence that this title is a relatively modern invention.

The earliest written source linking the saint with the meteor shower appears to date only to Edward Herrick in 1839. The association is widely recognised in rural southern Spain.

Observing the 2025 Perseids Meteor Shower

Watching a meteor shower is refreshingly low-tech. To enjoy the Perseids, you mainly need a sturdy garden chair, a hot drink and patience. Having a companion helps, as Perseids can flash up anywhere in the sky, not just near the radiant.

You can also outmanoeuvre the Moon by choosing your site in advance so its glare is blocked by a nearby hill or building.

The Perseids frequently show a double maximum separated by a few hours around the globe, so it’s always worthwhile to keep watch on nights both before and after the predicted peak.

They’re also famed for producing fireballs - exceptionally bright meteors that can momentarily flood the landscape with light and leave behind a lingering smoke train. I once saw a Perseid from northern Maine that seemed to produce an audible hiss.

We now understand that you can “hear” meteors through a localised effect known as “electrophonic sound”. Tune an FM radio to an unused frequency and, amid the static, you might just catch meteor “pings”.

Clouded over? You can still watch the Perseids live on 12 August from 21:00 UT / 17:00 EDT, thanks to astronomer Gianluca Masi and the Virtual Telescope Project.

Don’t miss the August Perseids - one of the finest meteor showers of 2025.

This piece was first published by Universe Today. Read the original article.