The Perseids — one of the strongest meteor showers of the year in the Northern Hemisphere — will peak on the night of Aug. 12-13. This meteor shower typically brings up to 75 "shooting stars" per hour, but this year, there's a big problem: a nearly full moon.
Meteor showers are always best seen in dark, moonless skies. However, August's full Sturgeon Moon rises on Saturday, Aug. 9. The moon always rises later each day as it orbits Earth, but in the summer, there's less of a difference. By Tuesday, Aug. 12, it will rise at almost the same time as it begins to get dark, making the window for a moonless night sky extremely short.
