Two meteor showers are set to peak this week. Here's how to view them

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Watch the night sky this week for high-speed meteors and bright fireballs from two meteor showers that peak at the same time.

The southern Delta Aquarits will be most active Monday night into early Tuesday, with up to 25 meteors per hour depending on your location. American Meteorological Society. And Tuesday night, light rain Alpha Capricornids — known for its bright fireballs — can bring five meteors an hour to the celestial feast.

A fireball is defined as a meteor that is brighter than the planet Venus and is caused by large meteorites with a diameter of 1 meter (over 3 feet). According to NASA.

Meteor showers are debris left behind by comets and asteroids revolves around the sun Earth meets annually At some point during its orbital path. The debris path for the South Delta Aquarites is spread out, so the shower could produce meteors at the same rate for a few days around its peak, said Robert Lunsford, Fireball report coordinator for the American Meteorological Society.

The best time to see both showers is Wednesday night, Lunsford said, when the moon is waning and losing about 8% of its light each night. (The Moon’s light will obscure the view of fainter meteors.) On Monday, the Moon will be about 34% full, on Wednesday the orb will be 16% full, According to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

Planetary Astronomer and Research Scientist Andrew Rivkin said that seeing a meteor shower requires a clear view of the entire sky, so it’s best to watch with your own eyes, without using any equipment like binoculars or binoculars. Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“If you can in view of the open sky, get away from city lights and find a dark place,” Rivkin said. He recommends sitting outside for at least 10 to 15 minutes to let your eyes adjust to the dark.

The best time to see meteors is around 4 a.m. local time, Lunsford said, when the radiant, the constellation where the meteors appear, is highest in the sky. Both meteor showers will be visible around the world, although the Northern Hemisphere will see lower rates of meteors – as few as 10 – per hour. Because the radiation in the sky will be less, he added.

The constellation Aquarius radiates to southern Delta Aquarius, and the constellation Capricornus radiates to Alpha Capricorn. Lunsford said the two constellations will be next to each other in the southwestern part of the sky.

“Even though they’re right next to each other, you can tell them apart because Alpha Capricorns are very slow,” he said. Southern Delta Aquarites at about 40 kilometers (25 miles) per second. According to NASAand usually lasts about half a second.

However, alpha capricornids are typically larger and last at least a second, Lunsford added. “They’re not as strong as the southern delta aquarids—five per hour—but they’re known for producing fireballs. So you might see four dim ones in an hour, then a nice, bright one that lasts a few seconds.

The Perseid meteor shower is still a few weeks away from its peak As of the evening of Aug. 11, it has been active in the night sky since mid-July and will be visible along with these other showers, Lunsford said. “You can only see a couple per hour, but they’re bright and fast,” he said. “So if you start to fall asleep, they literally wake you up.”

Earlier in July, a fireball lit up the sky in broad daylight in parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states in the US Northeast, sparking excitement across the East Coast. Some meteor enthusiasts caught this rare sight on camera.

“This is a situation where the universe comes to us. It communicates with us in ways we don’t normally think about,” Rivkin said. “Every day we see the sun, we see the moon. They’re up there, sort of fixed, the stars are fixed – but meteors are things that usually aren’t. … Only you can see a particular meteor. I think it will be special for them.

Here are The rest of the meteor shower It is expected to peak in 2024.

Perseids: August 11-12

Dragonids: October 7-8

Orionides: October 20-21

Southern Tarits: November 4-5

Northern Tarits: November 11-12

Leonidas: November 17-18

Gemini: December 13-14

Ursits: December 21-22