29/07/2024
ππΌππ―πΉπ² π π²ππ²πΌπΏ π¦π΅πΌππ²πΏ πΆπ» ππ΅π² π¦πΌπππ΅π²πΏπ» ππ²πΊπΆππ½π΅π²πΏπ²!
The twin-skywatching event is an amazing coincidence!
Meteor showers occur when Earth's orbit intersects a comet's path. The rocky debris left behind by the comet burns up as it enters Earth's atmosphere. During the double meteor showers this month, Earth will cross the orbits of comet 96P/Machholz β which causes the Southern Delta Aquariids that will peak July 29 to July 30 β and comet 169P/NEAT, which births the Alpha Capricornids that will peak July 30 to July 31.
At its peak, the Southern Delta Aquariids will treat viewers to around 20 to 25 meteors per hour (so-called background meteor showers are typically around five meteors per hour). The Southern Delta Aquariids will appear "pretty faint."
You really need to get to a dark site, away from lights, traffic, stay off your cell phones and let your eyes acclimate to the dark and you may have a chance of seeing some of those faint objects.
The Alpha Capricornids are much less frequent, but they are often associated with bright fireballs with bigger meteor chunks coming in and burning up and getting brighter and sort of more spectacular. These remarkably bright meteors are made of marble-size particles. Fainter meteors are usually grain-size.
The double meteor shower will be best viewed in the Southern Hemisphere where the radiant, or the apparent point from which the shower originates, will be almost overhead.
Both meteor showers will continue until mid-August.
Almost all meteor showers peak in the early morning hours between 2 and 4 a.m., so if you do want to catch either one of these, your best chances of seeing meteors are to get to a dark site and do so after midnight.
