You may have already seen a few so-called "shooting stars" in the dark night sky. Those are meteors associated with the Delta Aquarids meteor shower, which peaks later this month. 


What You Need To Know

  • The Delta Aquarids meteor shower peaks on July 28-29

  • Up to 10-20 meteors per hour are possible near peak

  • A nearly full moon could block the fainter meteors this year

The Aquarids is an average meteor shower, which typically produces around 20 meteors per hour at its peak, under ideal conditions. As debris from the comets Marsden and Kracht enters Earth's atmosphere, it burns up, and we see these streaks in the night sky.

You can see these meteors each year from about July 12 to August 23. But, they are more numerous around the peak on the night of July 28 into the early morning hours of July 29. The "peak" with this shower is typically fairly flat, so a decent number of meteors can usually be seen several days before and after.

Unfortunately, a nearly full moon will be an issue for us this year. This month's full moon occurs on July 24, so the night sky will still be quite bright. While that will block out most of the fainter meteors, if you're away from city lights and you luck out with a cloudless night, you still may be able to catch a few.

The best bet is to be somewhere very dark after midnight and to look toward the constellation Aquarius. 

Most meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation Aquarius but can appear anywhere in the night sky. 

For a look at the rest of the year's celestial events, check out this calendar here.