The oldest shower on record, watched in China in 687 BC.
A modest twenty an hour most years, with an occasional outburst nobody can predict — 1982 produced about ninety. The parent comet takes 415 years to come round, so the trail is old and thin and its surprises are its own business.
The radiant rises everywhere north of 56°S. From mid-northern latitudes (40°N) it climbs to about 84°. From mid-southern latitudes (35°S) it climbs to about 21°.
The height is the radiant's, the point the meteors seem to come from, on the peak night, counting only the hours when the Sun is at least 12° below the horizon. The lower it is, the fewer meteors reach you: at 30° up you would see about half the rate above, before the Moon and your own sky take their share.
| Maximum | Moon | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| 23 April 2026 | Waxing Crescent, 38% | A crescent that sets in the evening, well before the shower's best hours. |
| 23 April 2027 | Waning Gibbous, 95% | A bright Moon through the pre-dawn hours, which is exactly when the rate peaks. |
| 23 April 2028 | Waning Crescent, 3% | With effectively no Moon tonight, this is as good as the Perseids gets. |
| 23 April 2029 | Waxing Gibbous, 63% | Half-lit and setting around midnight — the second half of the night is yours. |
The Moon is taken at 00:00 UTC on the morning of maximum. Whether it is actually above your horizon at three in the morning depends on where you are standing — the live calendar works that out for your own location. Showers are almost all better after midnight, when your side of the planet turns to face the direction of travel and starts sweeping meteors up instead of waiting to be caught.
Nothing. Meteors cross too much sky too fast for binoculars or a telescope to be anything but a handicap — the equipment for this is a coat, a chair that tips back, and twenty minutes for your eyes to adapt. Look up and slightly away from the radiant rather than straight at it; meteors near the radiant are coming at you end-on and leave the shortest trails.
Peak night and rate: International Meteor Organization, Meteor Shower Calendar (opens in a new tab). Moon phases computed here.