The Dazzling Perseid Meteor Shower of 2018 in Photos

Perseid Meteors Put On a Show!

Sergio Garcia Rill

The Perseid meteor shower of 2018 put on a spectacular show for skywatchers around the world. The annual meteor shower peaked Aug. 11-13, just after the new moon, which made for excellent meteor-spotting conditions. Click through this gallery to see some of the best Perseid photos submitted by Space.com readers!

Perseid Fireball in Macedonia

Stojan Stojanovski

At Galičica National Park near Ohrid, Macedonia, astrophotographer Stojan Stojanovski captured a Perseid fireball as it lit up the starry sky above a serene mountain landscape. "Near the big puddle where animals drink water, we started shooting around 11 p.m. local time," Stojanovski told Space.com. "It was a good night with very good number of meteors per hour."

Meteor Meets Mars in Las Vegas

Tyler Leavitt

A Perseid meteor, Mars and the Milky Way light up the night sky in this photo taken near Las Vegas by Tyler Leavitt. "The orange glow to the right of the frame is the Vegas light pollution mixed with haze and smoke from the California wildfires," Leavitt told Space.com in an email.

Meteor, Mars and the Milky Way from Macedonia

Stojan Stojanovski

In this photo from Galičica National Park in Macedonia, Stojanovski captured a fireball meteor near Mars and the Milky Way.

Fireball Over Colorado

Sergio Garcia Rill

A fireball zips across the Milky Way in this photo taken by Sergio Garcia Rill at Sprague Lake in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Tyler Leavitt

Mars glows near a bright-green Perseid meteor over Las Vegas, Nevada in this photo by Tyler Leavitt.

Perseids Over Greece

Fotis Mavroudakis

Fotis Mavroudakis captured this photo of Perseid meteors over Falakro Oros, a mountain in northern Greece. The image combines 40 fireballs captured over a period of about 5 hours.

Meteor at Mount Galičica

Bojan Simjanoski

In another view from Galičica mountain near Ohrid, Macedonia, astrophotographer Simjanoski Bojan captured a Perseid prancing through the Milky Way.

Fireball Over Colorado

Sergio Garcia Rill

A Perseid fireball streaks across the star-speckled sky over Sprague Lake in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park in this image by astrophotographer Sergio Garcia Rill.

Italian Perseids from the Virtual Telescope Project

Gianluca Masi/Virtual Telescope Project

Several Perseid meteors dash across the sky above Italy's Castel Santa Maria in this photo by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project taken during the peak on Aug. 12-13, 2018.

Perseid Pierces Through Smoky Skies

Maxim Senin

Smoke from wildfires in California obscured the view of the Perseid meteor shower for much of the western U.S., but astrophotographer Maxim Senin managed to capture a few meteors from the Los Angeles Astronomic Society's dark-sky site in Los Padres National Forest.

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.