Double Meteor Showers Light Up Late July Skies

Mark your calendar for the final week of July—the night sky is about to put on a show worth losing sleep over. Two separate meteor showers will peak simultaneously on July 30th and 31st, creating what could be one of the month’s most spectacular stargazing moments.

The Southern Delta Aquariids will be the headline act, delivering around 20 shooting stars per hour at their peak. Though they’re visible starting July 12th, July 30th and 31st are when they really shine. The Alpha Capricornids, arriving at the same time, won’t match that volume—expect about 5 per hour—but they’re known for something flashier: bright, streaking fireballs that cut across the sky like cosmic fireworks.

Here’s the catch: the moon will be bright and large that night, which means some of the gentler, fainter meteors will get washed out. National Geographic recommends looking about 40 degrees away from the radiant point—the constellation where the shooting stars appear to originate—to escape the glare. The Southern Delta Aquariids are best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, but northern skies will catch them too, especially the farther south you venture. The Alpha Capricornids, on the other hand, perform well across both hemispheres.

If late-month conditions aren’t cooperating, there’s still celestial beauty to chase earlier in July. On July 11th, two hours before sunrise, look east for a crescent moon forming a triangle with the Pleiades—a star cluster of seven tightly packed asterisms (sometimes called the Seven Sisters). Mars will sit just a few finger widths away. A pair of binoculars reveals the Pleiades in stunning detail, but if you’re struggling to spot them, try using your peripheral vision—a handy trick for picking out dim objects in the dark. Then on July 17th, two hours after sundown, turn west to catch the crescent moon sitting just a few degrees below Venus, one of the brightest objects in the evening sky.

Whether you’re chasing shooting stars or hunting for planetary alignments, July offers plenty of reasons to step outside after dark. The only question now is whether you’ll bring a blanket, a telescope, or just your own two eyes.