The Perseid meteor shower is reaching its annual peak, giving sky watchers across the United States a chance to see bright meteors streak across the night sky. The shower peaks around August 12-13, with the best viewing generally coming after midnight and toward dawn on Thursday, August 13. NASA lists August 12-13 as the peak night and says the Perseids can produce dozens of meteors per hour under favorable dark-sky conditions.

The Perseids are expected to reach their predicted maximum at about 14:53 UTC on August 13, according to astronomical forecasts. That converts to 10:53 a.m. EDT, 9:53 a.m. CDT, 8:53 a.m. MDT and 7:53 a.m. PDT in the United States. Because those times fall after sunrise, American observers will not see the exact maximum, according to News.AZ.

The shower is best viewed from locations far from artificial light. Much of the United States can see the Perseids because the shower favors the Northern Hemisphere.

1. Great Basin National Park, Nevada: one of the country's recognized dark-sky destinations, offering exceptionally dark conditions away from major cities.
2. Big Bend National Park, Texas: its remote location and limited artificial lighting make it a strong choice for stargazing.
3. Death Valley National Park, California/Nevada: the vast desert landscape provides broad, unobstructed skies.
4. Joshua Tree National Park, California: a popular Southern California destination for night-sky viewing.
5. Cherry Springs State Park, Pennsylvania: one of the best-known stargazing locations in the eastern US.
6. Arches and Canyonlands, Utah: remote desert skies can provide excellent meteor-viewing conditions.
7. Glacier National Park, Montana: northern skies and relatively low light pollution offer strong viewing opportunities.
8. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming/Montana/Idaho: large areas away from developed zones can provide dark skies.

The exact quality of the view will depend on cloud cover, local light pollution and atmospheric conditions.

The Perseids appear to radiate from the direction of the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeastern sky. But sky watchers should not stare only at Perseus. Meteors can appear across a much wider area of the sky, and a broad field of view can actually make it easier to catch longer streaks.

The Perseids are produced by debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, KSAT reported. As Earth travels through the stream of particles left behind by the comet, tiny pieces of material enter the atmosphere at extremely high speeds and burn up, creating the flashes commonly called shooting stars. NASA puts the Perseid meteor velocity at about 59 kilometers per second.