TONIGHT: Meteor Shower

There is a meteor shower tonight! The annual Delta Aquarid meteor shower is a modest shower of 15 to 20 meteors per hour, occurring an hour or two before dawn. The Delta Aquariad meteror’s paths can be traced back to a certain spot in the sky called “the meteor shower radiant,” which nearly aligns with the star Delta Aquarii in the constellation Aquarias, which explains the name of the meteor shower.

Though, don’t get too excited – It might be difficult to see this year because the  full waning gibbous moon is going to be rather bright tonight.

Good news: there are more meteor showers to come!

The Perseid shower can be seen on moon-free nights: late on Wednesday, August 11th till dawn on Thursday August 12th. The Perseids strengthen in number as midnight goes toward dawn, and the meteors are often bright and leave persistent trails.

To learn more about meteorites and their place in our culture, check out Christopher Conkinos’ book The Fallen Sky.