Perseid Peak Arrives Over Camden County Tonight Under a New Moon

Quick Take

• The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, Wednesday, Aug. 12, into the pre-dawn hours of Thursday.
• A new moon leaves the sky fully dark, conditions the American Meteor Society calls optimum.
• Expect 30 to 50 meteors an hour from a dark rural spot, not the 100 an hour in national coverage.
• Dismal Swamp State Park, the darkest public land in the county, closes at 4:30 p.m. and is unavailable tonight.

CAMDEN, N.C. — The Perseid meteor shower peaks over Camden County tonight, and the moon that usually spoils it is gone. It turned new at 1:37 p.m. Wednesday and adds no light to the sky at all. A new moon will not fall on Aug. 12 again until 2045.

Here is what a meteor shower is, for anyone who has never watched one. Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle sheds a trail of dust as it loops through the inner solar system, and Earth crosses that trail every August. The particles are mostly the size of a grain of sand, and they burn up about 60 miles overhead. Nothing reaches the ground.

Trace the streaks backward, and they converge near the constellation Perseus, which is where the shower gets its name. Perseus sits low in the northeast in late evening and climbs all night. The meteor count climbs with it.

That is why the sky is not fully dark until about 9:35 p.m., and why the strong hours run from 2 a.m. until first light at 4:45 a.m.

Kids who cannot make 2 a.m. still have a reason to be outside at 10. When Perseus is low, meteors enter at a shallow angle and skim along the atmosphere instead of dropping through it, drawing long slow streaks that can last more than a second. They are called earthgrazers, and they are the ones people remember.

Where to go

Start in your own backyard with every outdoor light switched off. For most people, that beats a drive, and you can go inside when the mosquitoes win.

If you want darker, get away from two glows: Elizabeth City to the southwest and Hampton Roads to the north. Roads out toward Shiloh and Old Trap put both behind you. Look for an open field or open water with no tree line blocking the low northeastern sky.

Dismal Swamp State Park is the darkest public ground in the county and closes at 4:30 p.m., so it is not available tonight. Do not park on the shoulder of U.S. 158 or U.S. 17 to watch.

How to watch

1. Be outside by 9:30 p.m., or sleep and set an alarm for 2 a.m. Anything before full dark is wasted time.
2. Lie back. Use a reclining chair or a blanket on the ground. Stand up, and you will quit in ten minutes with a sore neck.
3. Give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust. One look at a phone screen resets the clock, so switch it to red light or put it away.
4. Face northeast and look about halfway up. Meteors nearest Perseus have the shortest trails.
5. Stay an hour. They arrive in clusters, and fifteen minutes tells you nothing.
6. Bug spray. This is August in swamp country.

One number is worth correcting. National coverage is promising 100 meteors an hour, a figure that assumes the radiant sits directly overhead in a flawless sky. The American Meteor Society's realistic rural number is 30 to 50, and its calendar notes 2026 may run below average because Jupiter has disturbed part of the debris stream.

Rain chances near 25 percent could get in the way tonight. Thursday night into Friday morning is nearly as good, and after that the rates fall off fast.