Regarding meteor showers, Pop perseids. It is not only a question of the quantity of meteors (up to 100 per hour) and their light quality (fireballs!) But also their superb timing.
The annual shower strikes its peak on hot and relaxed August nights while the earth crosses the paths with the dust cloud left by the comet Swift-Tuttle on its 133 years that swing in front of our planet. Looking at the shower can be a great experience while meteors pass the heavens in summer, leaving the light and the color in their wake.
John Denver, 27 and during a campsite trip in the middle of the Colorado pines, was so moved after seeing the Perseids of rain in the sky he wrote “Rocky Mountain High”.
That said, this year there is a warning.
The meteor shower should peak the night of August 11 and 12, according to Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith de la. NASA says that the best time of vision is during prejudices. But the moon will bother.
“The decreasing gibbous moon seriously compromises this shower at the time of the maximum activity,” notes the American Meteor Society.
The moon will be 92% full and in the sky most of the time while the shower strikes its peak, Krupp said.
“Weaker meteors will be lost in the moonlight,” he told Times. “To its best, the Perseid shower offers between 50 and 100 meteors per hour, but this year, much less will be seen.”
Stargazers can cross their fingers for more fireballs, a phenomenon for which the Perseid shower is known, according to NASA.
“Fire balls are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than a medium meteor sequence,” says NASA. “This is due to the fact that the fireballs come from larger particles of cometary materials.”
Krupp advises that those who are “engaged in the perseids” despite the reduction in the chances of visibility this year “should go somewhere far from any urban center and far from the dispersed dazzling of artificial lighting”.
Experts advise booking campsites in Joshua Tree, the Mojave desert and the Anza-Borrego desert state park. There are several other good points.
Once there, aim for an expansive view because, although the perseids seem to shine from the northern constellation of Perseus, they can appear anywhere, Bill Cooke, a scientist of NASA meteors, told Times in 2024. “So go on a bed or on a sleeping bag,” he said, “and extend flat on your back and look directly.”
Good news for 2026: The forecasts for the Perseid Meteor shower are excellent. The moon will be dark and, as reported by NPR, an unusually high number of meteors should flash in the night sky.
