The Perseid Maximum

Why the seat matters

Meteor watching is the one show where the seat is almost entirely about darkness and sky area. Every magnitude of sky brightness roughly halves your count, and every degree of horizon a canyon wall takes is a degree where the long, spectacular grazing trails happen. In 2026 the peak lands on a new moon, so for once the only thing between you and a hundred an hour is the ground you chose to stand on.

Season

Mid-August, annually

Best months

August 11–13 every year; 2026 falls on a new moon

Cadence

Returns on the same dates every year.

Base

Moab, Utah

Every seat, ranked

Seat fit is the simulator’s own score — darkness, open horizon, historical clear-sky odds, altitude and reachability, weighted for what this show cares about. It ranks seats against each other; it is not a forecast for any night. Tap a seat for the full card.

1. 01

   Goblin Valley Observation Point

   Mezzanine · 38.567°N 110.708°W 81 Bortle2Clear78%Blocked6%

   Seat fit 81/100 — Front-of-house seat for this show.

   Hoodoo foreground, a six-percent horizon, hot showers, and the lowest cloud odds on this circuit. The obvious pick, and it fills up first.

   Elevation

   1,520 m

   Bortle class

   2

   Sky blocked

   6%

   Historically clear

   78%

   Getting there

   1 h 30 min drive + 6 min hike

   Facing

   40°

   Facilities

   campground, showers, yurts, fuel 35 min

   See the sky from this seat → Map
2. 02

   Cedar Breaks Amphitheatre

   Front row · 37.636°N 112.845°W 80 Bortle2Clear66%Blocked10%

   Seat fit 80/100 — Front-of-house seat for this show.

   Three thousand metres of altitude strips a third of the atmosphere out of your way. It also puts you in the monsoon's favourite afternoon build zone.

   Elevation

   3,170 m

   Bortle class

   2

   Sky blocked

   10%

   Historically clear

   66%

   Getting there

   1 h 15 min drive + 8 min hike

   Facing

   45°

   Facilities

   visitor centre, toilets, ranger programme, no fuel in park

   See the sky from this seat → Map
3. 03

   Natural Bridges · Owachomo

   Front row · 37.601°N 110.009°W 80 Bortle1Clear76%Blocked14%

   Seat fit 80/100 — Front-of-house seat for this show.

   The first International Dark Sky Park on Earth, and it still measures Bortle 1. Thirteen campsites for the whole peak night — arrive by noon or sleep in the car.

   Elevation

   1,980 m

   Bortle class

   1

   Sky blocked

   14%

   Historically clear

   76%

   Getting there

   2 h 10 min drive + 18 min hike

   Facing

   40°

   Facilities

   campground (13 sites), vault toilets, no fuel for 65 km

   See the sky from this seat → Map
4. 04

   Grand Canyon North Rim · Cape Royal

   Front row · 36.062°N 111.949°W 78 Bortle2Clear70%Blocked8%

   Seat fit 78/100 — Front-of-house seat for this show.

   A two-thousand-metre hole in the ground as your foreground and a rim road you can stay on all night. The lodge is the bottleneck, not the sky.

   Elevation

   2,350 m

   Bortle class

   2

   Sky blocked

   8%

   Historically clear

   70%

   Getting there

   2 h 35 min drive + 10 min hike

   Facing

   45°

   Facilities

   lodge (books out a year ahead), toilets, fuel 40 min

   See the sky from this seat → Map
5. 05

   Kodachrome Basin

   Mezzanine · 37.522°N 111.986°W 78 Bortle2Clear73%Blocked12%

   Seat fit 78/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: clear odds.

   Sandstone chimneys and a state-park campground with real plumbing. Basin walls take a little more sky than Goblin does, for a lot more comfort.

   Elevation

   1,740 m

   Bortle class

   2

   Sky blocked

   12%

   Historically clear

   73%

   Getting there

   1 h 5 min drive + 5 min hike

   Facing

   45°

   Facilities

   campground, showers, store 20 min

   See the sky from this seat → Map
6. 06

   Bryce · Fairyland Point

   Mezzanine · 37.644°N 112.146°W 77 Bortle2Clear68%Blocked15%

   Seat fit 77/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: open sky.

   Astronomy rangers, thousands of visitors, and headlights all night. Bryce's sky is superb; Bryce's crowd on peak night is the reason people drive to Goblin.

   Elevation

   2,440 m

   Bortle class

   2

   Sky blocked

   15%

   Historically clear

   68%

   Getting there

   55 min drive + 4 min hike

   Facing

   50°

   Facilities

   toilets, lodge, shuttle, fuel 10 min

   See the sky from this seat → Map
7. 07

   Moab · Highway 313 Pull-off

   Balcony · 38.648°N 109.736°W 73 Bortle4Clear75%Blocked9%

   Seat fit 73/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: darkness.

   Twenty-five minutes from a burger and a bed, with a nine-percent horizon. Moab's glow is real but it sits southeast — behind the radiant, not in front of it.

   Elevation

   1,830 m

   Bortle class

   4

   Sky blocked

   9%

   Historically clear

   75%

   Getting there

   25 min drive

   Facing

   45°

   Facilities

   paved pull-off, town 25 min, 24h fuel, food

   See the sky from this seat → Map
8. 08

   Monument Valley · The Mittens

   Balcony · 36.983°N 110.100°W 70 Bortle3Clear74%Blocked20%

   Seat fit 70/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: open sky.

   The most famous foreground in the American West, from a hotel balcony. The park closes at night unless you are staying, and the buttes take a fifth of your sky.

   Elevation

   1,740 m

   Bortle class

   3

   Sky blocked

   20%

   Historically clear

   74%

   Getting there

   45 min drive

   Facing

   40°

   Facilities

   hotel, restaurant, tribal park hours apply

   See the sky from this seat → Map

What is actually happening

Earth ploughs through the debris trail of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle at 59 km/s. Grains the size of sand grains ionise a column of air 80 to 120 km up; the streak you see is that column recombining, not the particle burning. All the tracks appear to diverge from a radiant in Perseus purely by perspective, the same way railway tracks converge. Rates climb through the night as your side of Earth rotates to face into the stream head-on.

Other shows

• Aurora BorealisLofoten Islands, Norway
• Aurora AustralisTasmania, Australia
• Totality · 12 August 2026Northern Spain
• Moonrise EclipseHigh Atlas, Morocco
• The Galactic CoreAtacama Desert, Chile
• The Glowing TideJervis Bay, Australia
• Silver CloudsNorthumberland & the Scottish Borders
• The MoonbowVictoria Falls, Zambia & Zimbabwe
• The Long TailLa Palma, Canary Islands
• Fire on the HorizonMount Etna, Sicily
• Lenticular AlpenglowAoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand
• The AnvilSonoran Desert, Arizona
• The MurmurationSomerset Levels, England