Perseids in Reykjavik

The Perseids meteor shower peaks from Reykjavik around Aug 12-13, with up to 150 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a new moon means dark skies, and from Reykjavik the radiant in Perseus climbs to 66° above the east horizon around 04:00. Local best viewing window: 23:05–04:00 GMT on the peak night, about 4.9 hours of civil twilight. Scaled to that altitude, the 150/hour headline figure works out to roughly 137 meteors an hour from Reykjavik under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 11.1° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: limited visibility; a site a short drive away may do better.