Most astronomers refer to the Perseids as the best meteor shower of the year. This meteor shower takes place yearly between July 17th and August 24th, with the peak of the meteor shower taking place on the nights of August 12th and 13th. In dark sky viewing conditions, stargazers could see 20 to 50 meteors per hour.

Best Time to View the Meteor Shower

Dark skies make for the best viewing environment to see the Perseids meteor shower, but an 84% full Moon will likely hinder visibility of some of the meteors. “The average person under dark skies could see somewhere between 40 and 50 Perseids per hour,” said Bill Cooke, lead for NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office. “Instead, you’re probably going to see 10 to 20 per hour or fewer, and that’s because we have a bright Moon in the sky washing

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