Story perspectives

August 12, 2026 Brings Partial Solar Eclipse, Perseids Peak

8/13/2026

Summary

Story summary

The United States will see a partial solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, covering 10 %–30 % of the Sun from 12:53 p.m. to 2:40 p.m., requiring eclipse glasses.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks at 10 p.m. on August 12, with best viewing between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on August 13, producing 30–50 meteors per hour and up to 100 at dark sites.
The meteors come from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 133 years, under a new-moon sky.

History

Historical Context

On 30 June 1973 a Concorde prototype flew the total-solar-eclipse path over Africa, giving passengers 74 minutes of totality—the longest ever. Five experiments by scientists from the Paris Observatory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Queen Mary University collected data, but produced modest impact. That airborne effort anticipates the 12 August 2026 partial eclipse across the United States, where coordinated observations echo the 1973 mission.

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Story summary

The United States will see a partial solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, covering 10 %–30 % of the Sun from 12:53 p.m. to 2:40 p.m., requiring eclipse glasses.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks at 10 p.m. on August 12, with best viewing between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on August 13, producing 30–50 meteors per hour and up to 100 at dark sites.
The meteors come from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 133 years, under a new-moon sky.

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