Perseids Peak Tonight

Carl Hergenrother

The Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to peak this morning (morning of August 12). For a thorough guide on how to observe this shower see the American Meteor Society’s ‘Viewing the 2012 Perseid Meteor Shower‘ article.

The chart below shows the latest ZHR measurements based on meteor counts submitted to the International Meteor Organization. [Update: recent results from Europe are showing a ZHR of 40-60 meteors per hour.]

Live graph of ZHR values for the 2012 Perseids. Graph created by the International Meteor Organization (IMO) from member meteor counts. Credit: IMO.

While outside this morning watching the meteors, don’t forget to look to the east. The Moon, Jupiter and Venus are nicely lined up against the backdrop of the winter Milky Way.

View towards the east before dawn on the morning of August 12 (night of the Perseids peak). Image created with Stellarium.

Published by Carl Hergenrother

I am a professional astronomer specializing in the study of comets, asteroids and meteors. This blog will focus on my professional and amateur work in this field.

2 Comments

  1. What direction do we look ? We are in Hawaii thanks

    Rick Leibow Mortgage Specialist cell 808-635-4867

Comments are closed.