Double Meteor Shower Set to Light Up Night Sky on July 30

Skywatchers, mark your calendars – the night of July 30 is shaping up to be a cosmic double feature. Two meteor showers, the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids, are peaking at the same time, promising a bigger-than-usual sprinkle of shooting stars overhead.

With the moon only a quarter full, conditions couldn’t be much better for spotting meteors – especially if you can get away from city lights. Each shower on its own delivers about a dozen meteors an hour, but together, you might just lose count.

“Look for flashes of light in the night sky,” says Thaddeus LaCoursiere from the Bell Museum in Minnesota. “Both are very nice classic meteor showers,” he added, noting that the double lineup means more action for stargazers.

The Alpha Capricornids are slower and sometimes leave glowing tails that hang in the sky a bit longer, explains Nick Moskovitz from Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The viewing window lasts through August 12, but the early hours of Tuesday morning are prime time.

Why do meteor showers happen?
Earth is basically flying through trails of dust left behind by old comets. The Delta Aquariids are leftovers from comet 96P/Machholz, while the Alpha Capricornids come from comet 169P/NEAT. When these tiny particles slam into our atmosphere at insane speeds, they burn up and give us those fleeting streaks of light we call shooting stars.

How to watch
No telescopes, no fancy gear – just find a dark spot, ditch your phone, and look up. The pre-dawn hours are best when the sky is darkest and the moon isn’t stealing the spotlight.

And if you miss this one? Don’t worry. The Perseids, one of the most famous meteor showers of the year, are coming in mid-August – and they rarely disappoint.

With input from The AP News