How to watch the Delta Aquariids meteor shower kick off 'shooting star' season this weekend

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As many as 20 'shooting stars' per hour will fall during the peak of the Delta Aquariid meteor shower this weekend, but August's Perseid meteor shower will be far more impressive.

Several bright meteors streak through the sky over a white mountain on a blue lake
The Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower over Mount St. Helens in Washington state (Image credit: Getty)

The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower will peak this weekend, but it's just the first act of a multiweek "shooting star" season, with the best show still a few weeks away.

Known for faint shooting stars, the Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower will peak overnight on Sunday, July 30 through Monday, July 31, with about 20 meteors per hour expected, according to the American Meteor Society. The precise peak will be at 11 p.m. EDT on Sunday (0300 GMT on Monday).  However, the Southern Delta Aquariids produce good meteor rates for a week, centered on the peak night. 

Though they're popularly called shooting "stars," these fast trails are crumbs of dust (technically called meteoroids) from asteroids or comets left in Earth's orbital path, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. As they strike Earth's atmosphere, they heat up and vaporize, resulting in streaks of light across the sky.

Related: A skyscraper-size asteroid flew closer to Earth than the moon — and scientists didn't notice until 2 days later

It's therefore possible to be out at night in late July and August and see shooting stars from both meteor showers. Although they can appear anywhere in the sky, the points from which the two showers radiate are very different. From the Northern Hemisphere, Delta Aquariid meteors appear to originate from the constellation Aquarius in the southern sky, while the Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeast. 

The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower is caused by dust and debris left in the inner solar system by Comet 96P/Machholz, which orbits the sun every 5.3 years. 

The best way to view shooting stars is to observe after midnight from a location free from light pollution, which can be found using a light pollution map. However, given that shooting stars caused by the Delta Aquariids are faint and the moon is bright, it's advisable to look well before the peak night — and to prioritize the peak of the Perseids in August. 

Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Live Science contributor

Jamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science journalist and a regular contributor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads international stargazing and eclipse-chasing tours. His work appears regularly in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night, Sky & Telescope, and other major science and astronomy publications. He is also the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.