The Perseid Meteor Shower | Stargazing Books, Apps, and Resources

It’s Meteor Month! Break out your comfiest lounge chair and head out to the backyard (or dark-sky site) and don’t miss the annual Perseid meteor shower!

  • The best viewing time for the Perseid viewing is August 11-12, 2020!

Did you know… The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift–Tuttle. The meteors are called the Perseids because the point from which they appear to hail lies in the constellation Perseus.

To read more about it...

  • The Perseid meteor shower peaks early in the morning on Wednesday, August 12. Often the best meteor shower of the year, the Perseids produce rates of up to 100 meteors per hour.
  • The peak of the Perseid meteor shower occurs overnight from August 11 to 12. On August 12, the shower’s radiant — the point on the sky from which shower meteors appear to originate — will be high in the northeast around 2 A.M. local time. That will be the best time to watch for shower meteors, although you’ll likely catch meteors anytime between dusk on the 11th and dawn on the 12th.

Visit Astronomy.com for Perseid viewing info and some great photos of Comet NEOWISE!

Browse our favorite astronomy websites to consult for convenient nightly star charts and more:

Get the latest space exploration, innovation and astronomy news. Space.com celebrates humanity’s ongoing expansion across the final frontier.

NASA.gov brings you the latest news, images and videos from America’s space agency, pioneering the future in space exploration and scientific discovery.

Quality sky maps and star charts for skywatchers and educators. Download The Evening Sky Map free each month. Find constellations, planets, comets.

Prefer to go mobile? Download our favorite sky-viewing & "augmented reality" apps:

Star Walk 2 Free

Star Walk 2 is an exquisite stargazing app enabling you to explore the night sky through the screen of your device. Make an effortless journey through thousands of stars, planets and constellations. All you have to do is point your device to the sky!

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Star Chart

Used by over 30 million people worldwide, Star Chart provides a magical star gazing experience like no other. You can now have a virtual planetarium in your pocket! Look through the eyes of your device to see a virtual window into the whole visible universe.

DOWNLOAD:

SkyView Lite

This beautiful, intuitive stargazing app uses your camera to precisely spot and identify celestial objects in sky, day or night. Find popular constellations while you scan across the sky, locate planets in our solar system, discover distant galaxies, and witness satellite fly-bys.

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Want more astronomy? Check out these titles for adults & kids:

Keep looking up... Space is boundless!

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