The Perseids 2026 peak on August 12 — and this year the Moon stays out of the way
The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the night of August 12-13, 2026, on a New Moon. Where to watch in Portugal, from Alqueva to Gerês.
The Perseids 2026 peak on the night of August 12 to 13 — and this year nature has aligned everything: the shower’s maximum coincides with a New Moon, meaning properly dark skies and conditions that will not repeat until 2045. Away from light pollution, estimates point to 90 to 100 meteors per hour at the peak, with the best window between midnight and dawn.
Where can you watch the Perseids in Portugal?
The darker, the better. The national headliner is Dark Sky Alqueva, the world’s first certified dark-sky reserve, which usually runs observation events around this time. But Portugal has no shortage of alternatives: Serra da Estrela, the Gerês, the Alentejo and Trás-os-Montes interior — anywhere high, far from city lights and with an open horizon will do. Lie back, give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust, and put the phone away: meteors are a naked-eye show, and a telescope actually gets in the way.
Do you have to wait for August?
Not really. Perseid activity runs from July 17 to August 24 — so it has already started — and the nights leading up to the peak already deliver streaks. The show happens as Earth crosses the dust trail of comet Swift-Tuttle; NASA keeps a full guide to the shower.
And there is one more reason to circle August 12: late that same afternoon, a solar eclipse will be partially visible from Portugal. An eclipse and the best meteor shower in decades on one day — if you are after summer-night plans, it is hard to beat a bill headlined by the sky itself.
Image: Giles Laurent / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
