A meteor shower trio will soon light up the night sky
The Perseid, delta Aquariid, and alpha Capricornid meteor showers will put on a crisscrossing display towards the end of July.
What's better than one meteor shower? Three of them sending streaks of light across the night sky at the same time!
Each year, during the month of July, our planet Earth plunges into three separate streams of comet debris, each composed of ice and dust that orbits around the Sun. As we fly through these streams, the atmosphere sweeps up the tiny meteoroids directly in our path, which flash by overhead, producing a spectacular trio of overlapping meteor showers.
The first of these, the alpha Capricornids, originates from a comet known as 169P/NEAT. Although the meteor shower has been observed for a very long time, its parent body was not discovered until 2005. Originally thought to be an asteroid, further observations revealed weak comet activity when it neared the Sun.
We begin to see meteors from the alpha Capricornids in early July each year, radiating out from the constellation Capricornus, in the southern sky. This shower often goes unmentioned and unnoticed, though, as it produces just a handful of meteors each night from early July through mid-August.
The radiant of the alpha Capricornids, on the night of the meteor shower's peak, on July 31-August 1. The First Quarter Moon will be in the western sky, setting around midnight. (Scott Sutherland/Stellarium/NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)
However, despite their rarity, alpha Capricornids tend to be fairly bright, and can even include a few fireballs — exceptionally bright meteors that are easily visible for hundreds of kilometres around on clear nights, even for observers trapped under heavily light-polluted skies.
The Perseids are the second of this trio to start. Originating from a comet called 109P/Swift–Tuttle, due to the angle of the meteoroids as they enter the atmosphere, the meteors appear from the direction of the constellation Perseus, in the northern sky.
The radiant of the Perseids (the point in the sky the shower appears to originate from) is located in the northeastern sky each night from mid-July through late August. The view in this simulation depicts the night of the peak, on August 12-13, 2025. The phase of the Moon (Waning Gibbous) is shown in the top right corner. (Simulation courtesy Stellarium. Moon phase from NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)
The third is the Southern delta Aquariids. Although we don't know for sure, this shower appears to come from an oddball comet called 96P/Machholz. The odd thing about this object is that it's apparently unlike any other comet in our solar system, with a unique orbit and chemical composition. It's even possible that it's an alien comet that was long ago captured by our Sun's gravity as it wandered through interstellar space.
The meteors from Comet Machholz's debris stream can be traced back to the constellation Aquarius, in the southern sky. Also, due to the specific angle of the comet's path through the solar system, it produces a slightly better show in the southern hemisphere than the north. However, here in Canada, we can still see a decent number of meteors from it, if we know when to look.
The radiant of the delta Aquariids is located in the southern sky each night from mid-July through early August. The view in this simulation depicts the night of the peak, on July 30, 2025, although the delta Aquariids peak between the 29th and 31st. The July 30 phase of the Moon (Waxing Crescent) is shown in the top right corner. (Simulation courtesy Stellarium. Moon phase from NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)
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All three of these meteors showers begin slowly, producing just a few meteors at their start — the alpha Capricornids on July 7, the Perseids on July 17, and the delta Aquariids on July 18. (Although the delta Aquariids can start as early as the 12th.)
The end of July is the best time to view the trio, though. By the last few nights of the month, we can be seeing around 20 Perseid meteors per hour streaking out of the northeast, crisscrossing with about 20 delta Aquariids per hour from the southeast. On the night of the 31st, the alpha Capricornids can add up to 5 more per hour to the overlapping display.
With the timing of the Moon's phases, the nights of the 29th, 30th, and 31st are probably the best time to go out and spot these meteors. This is because the Moon will be off in the west throughout the evening and will set by midnight. That leaves the rest of the night with a nice dark sky for picking out those brief flashes of light overhead.
This wider simulation of the eastern sky, on the night of July 31-August 1, 2025, shows the radiants of the Perseid, delta Aquariid, and alpha Capricornid meteor showers in their respective spots. The First Quarter Moon is setting on the western horizon at this time, out of view of the observer. (Scott Sutherland/Stellarium)
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Once we're into August, the number of Perseid meteors will continue to rise. Meanwhile, the number of delta Aquariids and alpha Capricornids ramp down significantly before both showers end around the middle of the month.
Normally, the increase in the frequency of Perseid meteors would more than make up for the loss of the other two. Unfortunately, though, night by night, we'll run into a problem from the Moon.
During the first two weeks of August, the Moon will be casting off quite a bit of light as it passes through its brightest phases — Waxing Gibbous from the 2nd to the 7th, the Full Sturgeon Moon on the 8th-9th, and Waning Gibbous from the 9th to the 14th. The added moonlight will wash out the sky, especially on humid August nights, causing us to miss many of the dimmer meteors. This includes the night of the 12th-13th, when the Perseids reach their peak.
The phases of the Moon from July 27 through August 16 reveal why sky conditions may be best for the delta Aquariid and Perseid meteor showers at the end of July. (Scott Sutherland/NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)
Normally, at the Perseids' peak, observers under clear dark skies have a chance to spot up to 75-100 meteors every hour. This year, with only the brighter meteors shining through, we will likely see closer to 40-50 per hour. Weather conditions could reduce that even further.
Fortunately, the Perseids are well-known for being the meteor shower that produces the greatest number of fireballs!
Watch below: Perseid fireball captured by NASA all-sky camera
After the peak of the Perseids, we can still spot meteors from the shower as it ramps down, right up until August 24. So, watch for clear skies in your forecast and keep an eye out for meteors and fireballs flashing through the night.
(Editor's note: This article has gone through a significant update to include additional information regarding the alpha Capricornids meteor shower and how it will add to the show produced by the Perseids and delta Aquariids.)
Thumbnail image produced using the open-source planetarium software, Stellarium.