Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the debris left behind by a comet as it swung in close to the sun during its orbit. Tiny chunks of the comet hit our atmosphere at 90,000 mph, burning up and producing beautiful streaks in the sky. Nobody knows precisely which comet causes the Delta Aquarids because the originating body has been too faint and elusive to accurately track. One suspect is Comet 96P Machholz, which was discovered in 1986 and comes close to the sun every five years, but the link has never been definitively proven.
The most famous summer meteor shower, the Perseids is often the most spectacular, with more than 50 shooting stars per hour. But this year’s Perseids happen to peak on Aug. 12, quite close to the full moon, whose bright light will dim the shower’s magnificence. The Delta Aquarids peak tonight, just a couple days after the new moon, meaning that its light will not be around to interfere with the night sky show.
To really enhance the view, Slooh will be broadcasting images of the sky using special super-sensitive low-light equipment at its telescope in the Canary Islands. Watchers in the U.S. can also double their Delta Aquarid time by first watching the Slooh show and then heading out to a dark sky location between midnight and early morning, when you should be able to spot 15 to 20 meteors per hour. If you’re able to track down a star chart, you can use it to locate the bright star Fomalhaut, which will be just below the spot where the meteors appear to come from.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.