August 12, 2026: Three notable sky events occur today: the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak, Sirius makes its heliacal rising, and a total solar eclipse crosses the Arctic, Greenland, Spain, and surrounding ocean regions.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:56 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:55 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Venus as an Evening Star
Three events occur today: the Perseid meteor shower peak, Sirius’ heliacal rising, and a total solar eclipse.
Perseid Meteor Shower
The Perseid meteor shower peaks this morning and tomorrow morning across the western hemisphere. Each year, Earth passes through the orbital pathway of periodic Comet Swift–Tuttle. Dusty debris from the comet’s icy nucleus revolves around the sun and has spread along the elongated orbit. Beginning during late July and lasting for about a month, Earth moves through this debris stream, reaching the densest concentration of particles near mid-August.
At the combined speeds of Earth and the cometary debris, the particles vaporize high in the atmosphere, appearing as streaks of light commonly called shooting stars.
The meteors appear to emerge from a region in Perseus, giving the shower its name. Under ideal conditions with no moonlight and a dark rural sky, up to 90 meteors per hour are visible after midnight and before morning twilight begins. From urban locations with significant outdoor lighting, 10–20 meteors per hour are more typical, while suburban locations may see around 20 meteors per hour. Perseids can appear anywhere in the sky, although most are seen high in the east-northeast.
With the New moon phase occurring today, moonlight has virtually no effect on meteor visibility this year, allowing sky watchers to see fainter meteors that would otherwise be washed out by brighter moonlight.
Sirius, Heliacal Rising
This morning, Sirius makes its first morning appearance, known as a heliacal rising, at Chicago’s latitude. Look for the Dog Star in the east-southeast about 40 minutes before sunrise.
In ancient Egypt, Sirius’ heliacal rising signaled the beginning of the agricultural year. As the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius is the last of the bright winter evening stars to return to the eastern morning sky before sunrise. The exact date of its first appearance depends on local weather conditions and cloud cover near the horizon.
Solar Eclipse
Later today at 12:37 p.m. Central Time, the moon reaches the New phase, beginning lunation 1282, the number of lunar cycles since the count began over a century ago. The moon passes across the sun, casting a total eclipse shadow that races across the Arctic, Greenland, Spain, parts of Portugal, and the ocean regions between them.
A partial eclipse is visible across Alaska, much of Canada, the northern United States near the Canadian border, and the northeastern United States. The total eclipse is not visible from the contiguous United States.
Here are selected locations with the maximum eclipse percentage and the local time of greatest eclipse:
• Anchorage — 39%, 8:22 a.m.
• Boston — 27%, 1:55 p.m.
• Calgary — 7%, 10:36 a.m.
• Columbus (OH) — 3%, 1:40 p.m.
• Detroit — 9%, 1:36 p.m.
• Madison (WI) — 2%, 12:23 p.m.
• Minneapolis — 3%, 12:13 p.m.
• Philadelphia — 15%, 1:55 p.m.
• Quebec City — 35%, 1:46 p.m.
• Toronto — 17%, 1:40 p.m.
• Winnipeg — 13%, 12:40 p.m.
Do not observe the sun directly. Approved solar filters provide a safe view. Ordinary sunglasses are not safe for solar viewing. During the eclipse, changing light patterns beneath a tree can appear as tiny crescent suns. Overlapping leaves and branches create natural apertures that project images of the partially eclipsed sun onto the ground.
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