Perseid meteor shower 2028: peak date and how to watch
When the 2028 Perseids peak, in UTC, the moon phase that night, the radiant and what rate to expect.
Peak
12 Aug 2028
04:20 UTC
ZHR
100
ZHR is the number of meteors an hour you would see with the radiant overhead, under a perfectly dark sky and no moon. From a city, expect a fraction of that.
Moon at the peak
poor (bright moon)
63%
Activity period
| Activity period | 17 Jul 2028 – 24 Aug 2028 |
| Radiant | 48.2° / 58.1° |
| Speed | 59 km/s |
| Parent body | 109P/Swift-Tuttle |
How to watch
- Find the darkest sky you can reach and give your eyes 20 minutes to adapt, with no screens.
- Watch a wide patch of sky about 40° away from the radiant, not the radiant itself.
- The best hours are after midnight, when the radiant climbs higher and the Earth is ploughing head-on into the stream.
- No telescope or binoculars needed: the naked-eye field of view is the right tool.
See also
How these times are calculated
Each shower’s parameters (solar longitude of the peak, activity period, radiant, speed and ZHR) come from the IMO Working List of Visual Meteor Showers. The peak date and time are not stored: they are computed year by year by solving for the instant when the Sun’s ecliptic longitude reaches the peak value, using the same solar series as the sunrise pages. For sharply peaked showers such as the Quadrantids, the IMO publishes year-specific predictions that can differ by a few hours.
- IMO — International Meteor Organization, Working List of Visual Meteor Showers — imo.net