{"id":402456,"date":"2026-08-10T10:29:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T10:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/402456\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T10:29:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T10:29:46","slug":"tips-for-watching-the-2026-perseid-meteor-shower-in-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/402456\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for watching the 2026 Perseid meteor shower in Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best meteor showers of the year will reach its peak overnight Wednesday into Thursday. If you haven\u2019t stayed up to watch the Perseids before, you\u2019ll have an especially good opportunity this time around. The peak aligns with a new moon, allowing for \u201cideal\u201d visibility<\/a> against a dark sky, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

The Perseids are popular because they produce lots of meteors \u2014 as many as 60 to 100 per hour during the peak, said Lara Eakins, senior program coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin\u2019s Department of Astronomy. The meteor shower is also known for fireballs, brighter meteors that are easier to spot in the sky. And because it takes place in the summer, viewers can be outside late at night without getting cold.<\/p>\n

The meteors are formed from space debris left by the Swift-Tuttle comet<\/a>. As the Earth passes through the cloud of debris in its orbit, the particles burn through the atmosphere and create the streaks of light known as meteors. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese meteors are actually the size of a grain of sand,\u201d said Nielsa Rose Lachapelle, outreach chair for the Austin Astronomical Society<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Eakins, who has watched the Perseids at Enchanted Rock, said it\u2019s a great experience to share with other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re just laying there and all of a sudden this cool streak just goes across, and then maybe 30 seconds or a minute later, another one goes across,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s like nature’s fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to get the best view around Austin<\/p>\n

The Perseids are active for around a month, so you can already catch some meteors now and continue to see them after the peak. But your best bet for observing the greatest number of meteors will come after midnight on Wednesday and before dawn on Thursday, as the Earth passes through the densest part of the comet debris, Eakins said.<\/p>\n

The Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus because the meteors appear to originate from it. But you don\u2019t need to focus your eyes just on the constellation, Eakins said. The meteors can emerge across the sky.<\/p>\n

You also don\u2019t need equipment like telescopes or binoculars \u2014 just your eyeballs and a dark sky. That means getting away from the city and its ever-present shining lights.<\/p>\n

\"NASA<\/p>\n

NASA recommends looking northeast, toward the constellation Perseus, then letting your eyes wander.<\/p>\n

Lachapelle recommends traveling to a town or park that\u2019s been certified by DarkSky International<\/a> for protecting against light pollution. In the Austin area, that includes Liberty Hill<\/a>, Bee Cave<\/a>, Jonestown<\/a>, Dripping Springs<\/a> and Wimberley<\/a>. If you can\u2019t go far from the city, try looking for the darkest area you can with trees that can block some of that light.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve picked a spot, you\u2019ll want to give your eyes half an hour to adjust to the darkness. That means avoiding any additional light sources from cars, flashlights or phones, or switching to red light to preserve your night vision, Lachapelle said.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to bring water, snacks, bug spray and a comfortable chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an event that you’re going to spend 15 minutes at,\u201d Lachapelle said. \u201cThis is something that you’re probably going to want to spend a few hours sitting and watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the year, the Austin Astronomical Society hosts star parties that are open to the public. While the nonprofit doesn\u2019t have an event tied to the peak of the Perseids, it\u2019ll host Austin Under the Stars<\/a> at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School on Saturday from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m., while the meteor shower is still active.<\/p>\n

What other astronomical events can you see in Austin?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Perseid meteor shower garners a lot of fame, but it\u2019s just one of many celestial events that Austinites can look forward to this year.<\/p>\n

A partial lunar eclipse<\/a> will take place across the U.S. on the night of Aug. 27, causing the moon to darken and redden. You can observe it in the Austin area from around 9:30 p.m. until just before 1 a.m. the next day, Eakins said, with the maximum eclipse happening at 11:12 p.m. You don\u2019t need special eclipse glasses \u2014 lunar eclipses are safe to view with just your eyes<\/a>, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

Saturn will be at opposition on Oct. 4, meaning it will be opposite the sun from Earth. \u201cWhen the sun sets, Saturn will be rising, which means it’s at its roughly closest to us, so its biggest and brightest,\u201d Eakins said. This will kick off a period of being able to see Saturn more easily in the early evenings this fall.<\/p>\n

If you miss the Perseids, don\u2019t worry: August won\u2019t be your last chance for meteor showers. The Leonids meteor shower<\/a> will peak in mid-November, with the Geminids<\/a> following up shortly after in mid-December. <\/p>\n

Find a longer list of things you can see in the sky in the upcoming months on NASA’s website<\/a>. You can also listen to StarDate, an astronomy radio segment from UT Austin’s McDonald Observatory, on the program’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the best meteor showers of the year will reach its peak overnight Wednesday into Thursday. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,10533,141046,41054,141047,20355,141045,84382,27,29522],"class_list":["post-402456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-tx","tag-comet","tag-meteor-shower","tag-new-moon","tag-peak","tag-perseids","tag-shooting-star","tag-texas","tag-where-to-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}