A celestial shower that gets better past its peak

Summer's most dazzling meteor shower, the Perseids, peaked early Wednesday. At the same time, Venus and Jupiter converged in the sky overlapping like a very bright star.

- BY CHRISTINA LARSON

TAYFUN COSKUN Anadolu

THE PERSEIDS can produce from 60 to 100 meteors an hour. Above, a 2024 meteor shower at Yosemite.

If your focus is the meteor shower, it’s worth knowing that this year a bright moon dampened viewing during the predawn peak, so some experts recommend waiting a week or so to glimpse shooting stars against a darker sky.

The Perseids “are an incredible meteor shower,” said Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium production coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minn.

Under dark skies with no moon, the Perseids can produce from 60 to 100 meteors per hour, he said.