Meteor showers: where to look

Have you read Meteor showers: the basics?

Meteor showers do vary from year to year but to improve your chances of seeing a good display here are a few tips...
Choose a date when the shower is at maximum.
If possible, pick a dark, moonless night.
Choose a time when the radiant is high above the horizon.
If you've only just come outside allow your eyes fifteen minutes or more to become adapted to the darkness.
Just use your unaided eyes - binoculars will only restrict your field of view and reduce the number of meteors you are likely to see.
Look about 40 degrees or so away from the radiant and at an altitude of roughly 50 degrees - Stargaze can show you where to look.

Showing meteor showers on the star map:

Select the Meteor shower option from the Daily reports menu.
In the meteor shower window highlight the shower you are interested in by clicking on its panel.
Click the Show on map button.

The date of the map is changed to correspond to the time of maximum activity of the shower: the radiant and suggested viewing spots are displayed on the map:

The radiant is shown as a blue dot and clearly labelled.
A large white circle at altitude 50° is shown on the map.
Smaller white circles indicate suggested viewing points.

Look towards one of these points when viewing the meteor shower.

Depending on the position of the radiant there may only be one suggested viewing point or none at all. If no viewing points are shown this means that either the radiant is too near the horizon to make viewing worthwhile or it is in the best possible place near the zenith - in which case look anywhere along the 50° altitude.

The map in the example above shows reasonably good conditions for observing the Perseids - the radiant could be better placed but is sufficiently high to make viewing worthwhile, the sky is quite dark (in astronomical twilight) and there is no moon.