We have to prepare many wishesWhy on the night between 12 and 13 August comes the Perseid peakthe most beautiful and anticipated shooting stars of the year. Which in this 2026 could be even more, because it coincides with the New Moon.
What are Perseids and why are they so special
As the UAI explains, the Perseids represent one of the great annual meteor showers together with Quadrantids of January and at Geminids of December. Their period of activity extends from the second half of July until after August 20th, while the maximum is expected in the night between August 12th and 13th, when their frequency will reach approximately 100 meteors per hour under ideal observing conditions.
The origin of the shower is linked to the periodic comet 109P/Swift Tuttlediscovered in 1862 by astronomers Lewis Swift And Horace Parnell Tuttle: with an orbital period of about 133 years, this large comet leaves a vast stream of tiny rocky fragments and dust along its orbit.
And every summer the Earth crosses this region of space and the particles, entering the Earth’s atmosphere at around 59 km/s, “ignite” due to friction with the air, producing the bright trails that we all wait for every year.
In our country the Perseids are known above all as the “Tears of San Lorenzo”, a popular tradition that has its roots in the Middle Ages: the anniversary of San Lorenzo falls on August 10th and, for many centuries, the maximum swarm occurred precisely near that date.
But, as we often remember, because of the slow evolution of Earth’s orbits and of precession of the equinoxesfor a long time the peak actually occurs two or three days later.
Because this year the Perseids could be even more beautiful
2026 is a special year for the Perseids: the lunar calendar will indeed offer practically perfect condition right during the peak of the meteors.
The Moon will in fact be in the New phase on August 12th, in the same hours in which the swarm will be close to maximum activity.
This means that throughout the night the sky will be completely free from the disturbance of moonlight – write the UAI experts – allowing even the faintest meteors to be observed. This is an extremely favorable configuration, which does not occur every year and which makes 2026 one of the best opportunities of the decade to witness the spectacle of “shooting stars”.
How to admire the Perseids of 2026
©Stellarium
Perseids don’t need any optical instruments, but that’s better move away from sources of light pollution. Having done this, we turn our gaze towards the north-eastern part of the sky in the early hours of the night and towards the zenith in the hours before dawn, when the radiant, i.e. the point from which the meteors appear to depart (in the constellation of Perseus from which they take their name) will reach the maximum height above the horizon (on the map the sky of August 12, 2026 at approximately 11.00 pm).
Let’s prepare the most beautiful wishes and admire the most spectacular sky of the year!
Source: UAI
