The apparent sky point from which the 2026 Perseids seem to originate is called the radiant.
A meteor shower’s radiant is a perspective location, not the physical birthplace of each meteor. Perseid meteoroids travel through space on broadly similar trajectories as Earth encounters the debris stream. From the ground, their paths appear to diverge from one region of the sky.
The radiant is useful for identifying a shower and planning observations. When it is below the horizon, few shower meteors can be seen because Earth blocks most of the relevant paths. As the radiant rises, the chance of seeing Perseids improves, and it reaches its most favorable altitude during the late-night and pre-dawn hours.
The word “radiant” can be confused with the zenith, which is the point directly overhead. The Perseid radiant is not necessarily overhead; its position changes during the night and across the observing season.