Marvelous night-sky show with twin Meteor shower: Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids

Sky gazers are in for a double celestial treat with two meteor showers—Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids—lighting up the sky at the end of July. This is going to be that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when one might catch a couple of them showering at once.

The Southern Delta Aquariids, an annual late-summer event in North America, will be at its peak activity early Tuesday. Under dark skies, observers in the Northern Hemisphere could expect between 15 to 20 meteor per hour. Even better opportunities to view are for residents in the Southern Hemisphere. The American Meteor Society says the Delta Aquariids will be visible until August 21.

Alpha Capricornids meteor shower, will also be active during the Delta Aquariids, providing roughly 5 meteors per hour. This continues until August 15. It has a lower meteor count than that of other showers, but its meteors are relatively brighter, hence putting up a spectacular view.

Meteor showers come courtesy of comet debris; while the Delta Aquariids have been traced back to comet 96P/Machholz, the Alpha Capricornids have a link with comet 169P/NEAT. When these space rocks dive into Earth’s atmosphere, they heat up and create glowing pockets of air to form a fireball tail as in the “shooting star.”

University of Warwick astronomer, Don Pollacco also points out that while such showers are not high volume, the brilliance of the Alpha Capricornids’ meteors can be truly spectacular: “One bright one is worth 20 faint ones,” he said.

To view them most efficiently, locate a dark place well away from city lights and keep your eyes off your phone, so you can keep your night vision at its peak. Views of the Delta Aquariids will be best from the Southern Hemisphere, with a waning moon at 30% full keeping the sky dark until after midnight.

Coming soon is the next great meteor shower: The Perseids in mid-August. This keeps an updated list of expected meteor showers, peak viewing dates and conditions with moonlight for those who are really planning for an extravagant sky view.