Two meteor showers are set to peak this week. Here’s how to see them

Taylor Nicioli, CNN

(CNN) — Look up astatine nan nighttime entity this week for a chance to spot high-speed meteors and agleam fireballs from 2 meteor showers group to highest astir nan aforesaid time.

The Southern Delta Aquariids will beryllium astir progressive Monday nighttime done early Tuesday and could ringing successful a viewing of up to 25 meteors per hr depending connected your location, according to nan American Meteor Society. And connected Tuesday night, nan insignificant ablution Alpha Capricornids — known for its agleam fireballs — could besides bring 5 meteors per hr to nan celestial party.

A fireball is defined arsenic a meteor that is brighter than satellite Venus and is caused by a larger-size meteor that could transcend 1 metre (more than 3 feet) successful diameter, according to NASA.

Meteor showers are nan debris near by comets and asteroids orbiting nan sun that Earth encounters annually astatine immoderate constituent during its orbital path. The debris way for nan Southern Delta Aquariids is dispersed out, truthful nan ablution could nutrient astir nan aforesaid rates of meteors for a fewer days surrounding its peak, said Robert Lunsford, nan fireball study coordinator for nan American Meteor Society.

Wednesday nighttime is nan champion clip to position some showers, Lunsford said, arsenic nan satellite wanes and loses astir 8% illumination each night. (The moon’s illumination tin inhibit nan visibility of nan fainter meteors.) On Monday, nan satellite will beryllium astir 34% full, and connected Wednesday nan orb will beryllium 16% full, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

How to spot a meteor

To position meteor showers, it is champion to look pinch your eyes only and not usage immoderate instrumentality specified arsenic binoculars aliases a telescope, arsenic you’ll want a clear position of nan full sky, said Andrew Rivkin, a planetary astronomer and investigation intelligence pinch nan Applied Physics Laboratory astatine nan Johns Hopkins University successful Baltimore.

“Find yourself someplace dark, distant from metropolis lights, if you can, pinch a position of nan unfastened entity and settee in,” Rivkin said. He recommends sitting extracurricular for astatine slightest 10 to 15 minutes to fto your eyes set to nan dark.

The champion clip to spot meteors will beryllium astatine astir 4 a.m. section clip erstwhile nan radiant, nan constellation from which meteor showers look to originate, will beryllium nan highest successful nan sky, Lunsford said. Both meteor showers will beryllium visible crossed nan world, though nan Northern Hemisphere whitethorn spot little rates of meteors per hr — only up to 10 — because nan twinkling will beryllium little successful nan sky, he added.

Constellation Aquarius is nan twinkling for nan Southern Delta Aquariids, and constellation Capricornus is nan twinkling for nan Alpha Capricornids. Both constellations will beryllium adjacent to 1 different successful nan southwest portion of nan sky, Lunsford said.

“Even though they’re correct adjacent to each other, you tin show them apart, because nan Alpha Capricornids are truthful overmuch slower,” he said. The Southern Delta Aquariids are astir 40 kilometers (25 miles) per second, according to NASA, and typically past for half a second.

However, nan Alpha Capricornids are usually bigger and are much apt to past astatine slightest a 2nd long, Lunsford added. “They are not arsenic beardown arsenic nan Southern Delta Aquariids — possibly 5 an hr astatine nan champion — but they’re well-known for producing fireballs. So you whitethorn spot successful an hr 4 reasonably faint ones and past a nice, agleam 1 that’ll past a fewer seconds.”

While nan Perseid meteor ablution is still a fewer weeks retired from its highest during nan evening of August 11, it has besides been progressive successful nan nighttime entity since mid-July and tin beryllium seen alongside these different showers, Lunsford said. “You whitethorn only spot a mates an hour, but they thin to beryllium agleam and really fast,” he said. “So if you’re starting to doze off, they’ll really aftermath you up.”

Earlier successful July, a fireball streaked crossed nan entity successful wide daylight complete parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and different states successful nan US Northeast, sparking excitement crossed nan East Coast. Some meteor enthusiasts captured nan uncommon spectacle connected camera.

“It is simply a business wherever nan beingness is coming to us. It’s interacting pinch america successful a measurement that possibly we don’t usually deliberation about,” Rivkin said. “We spot nan sun each time and we spot nan moon. Those are up there, benignant of constant, nan stars are changeless — but meteors are things that are not typically there. … You mightiness beryllium nan only 1 to ever spot a peculiar meteor. I deliberation that makes them peculiarly special.”

Meteor showers

Here are nan remaining meteor showers that are expected to highest successful 2024.

Perseids: August 11-12

Draconids: October 7-8

Orionids: October 20-21

Southern Taurids: November 4-5

Northern Taurids: November 11-12

Leonids: November 17-18

Geminids: December 13-14

Ursids: December 21-22

Remaining moons of 2024

There are 5 much afloat moons this year, according to nan Farmers’ Almanac.

August 19: Sturgeon moon

September 17: Harvest moon

October 17: Hunter’s moon

November 15: Beaver moon

December 15: Cold moon