Mateusz Kaczmarek

One of the year’s most beloved meteor displays – the Perseid meteor shower – reaches its peak on the night of August 12 into the early hours of August 13. Normally, under dark skies, you might see 40–50 “shooting stars” per hour during the Perseids’ peak nasa.gov. This year, however, a glaring 84%-full moon will outshine many of the fainter meteors, cutting visible rates down to an expected ~10–20 per hour at best nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. Don’t be discouraged – the Perseids are famed for bright fireballs and long, colorful streaks, so the brightest meteors will still punch through the moonlight nasa.gov. In fact, NASA experts insist the shower is “still worth catching” despite the moon’s interference smithsonianmag.com smithsonianmag.com. The shower’s activity has been building since mid-July and will remain active for several days after the peak smithsonianmag.com, but the highest meteor counts are forecast for late Aug 12 into pre-dawn Aug 13 smithsonianmag.com.