Heads Up, Photographers, the Perseids Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

Although lucky photographers in a slender swath of Europe are being handled to a complete photo voltaic eclipse at present, everybody within the Northern Hemisphere (and the very northern a part of the Southern Hemisphere) can benefit from the annual Perseids Meteor Shower proper now. The meteor bathe peaks tonight.

As photographers like Josh Dury have expertly proven over the previous few years, the Perseids will be extraordinarily photogenic.

While PetaPixel‘s guide to photographing meteor showers is 10 years old now, its lessons remain as applicable as ever.

“Photographing a meteor shower is more like photographing a time-lapse than traditional still photos. You can never anticipate where or when a meteor is going to streak across the sky,” wrote photographer Thomas O’Brien. “In order to catch them, you have to set up and take as many photos as you can throughout the night with a wide angle lens on the camera. If you leave the camera in the same position, you can use the resulting images for a short time-lapse clip in addition to the still images you can capture.”

O’Brien provides that it’s vital to discover a very darkish space, convey a sturdy tripod, and use a distant launch, whether or not that’s a cable launch or a smartphone app with wi-fi management.

PhotoPills simply revealed a detailed guide about photographing meteor showers in 2026, recommending that photographers actually take into consideration the general scene for his or her picture, not simply the meteors within the sky. The expansive information has a number of suggestions for planning photographs, discovering the very best location, organising the digicam, and even concepts for what varieties of photographs folks can attempt to seize.

Finding darkish, clear skies is an integral part of fine meteor bathe photographs. As NASA explains, beneath darkish skies, viewers can see as much as 100 meteors per hour throughout peak Perseids. These meteors are touring a median of 37 miles (practically 60 kilometers) each second, so the longer the shutter is open, the higher a photographer’s odds of capturing a meteor streaking throughout the night time sky.

While peak meteor circumstances are tonight, August 12, and early tomorrow morning, the Perseid Meteor Shower lasts till August 24. There are a lot extra alternatives to see them, even when the circumstances in your space aren’t optimum tonight.

Image creditHeader picture by Arnas Goldberg, licensed by way of Creative Commons CC BY 3.0