The Perseid meteor shower starts the summer season of the Summer Shooting Star this week. So see it

Every summer, amateur astronomers from all over the world are looking forward to observing the famous Persoeid meteor shower, but often overlooked four fewer shower who reach their peak between July 29 and August 16.

This year, a decreasing moon will seriously hinder the Perseid meteor shower three days after the full moon phase. So why not take this opportunity to see the other four, all of whom will enjoy except for a dark sky?

The summer meters, which occasionally fly over their line of sight, are particularly striking between the beginning of July and the last week of August. And between August 3 and 15, there are no fewer than four different smaller displays (in addition to the personal).

Anyone who triggers the night sky for a short time on these nights will probably recognize a few “shooting stars” over the sky. In general, the earth meets richer meteoric activities in the second half of the year. And it is more likely that you will see twice as many meteors per hour in the times of the evening. This is due to the fact that we are on the “rear” side of the earth during the night hours due to our orbital movement.

Each meteoric particle must generally have an orbital speed that is larger than that of the earth to “catch” us. After midnight, when we are turned to the “leading” side of the earth, every particle that lies along the orbital path of the earth will get into our atmosphere as a meteor.

As such objects, our atmosphere collide with a speed of 7 to 45 miles (11 to 72 km) per second.

The only equipment you need are your eyes and a modest amount of patience. The actual number of meteors that a single observer can see in an hour depends heavily on the sky conditions. The installments given in the table are based on their ability to look at stars as weak as the size +6.5 – as the threshold of visibility of bare eyes – that they are an experienced observer and the assumption that the radiation is directly over head. The radiation is the place in the sky where the paths of the shower members would expand to the rear if they are applied on a star card. Their fist obtained, which is held at arm length, corresponds to about 10 degrees in the sky. So if the radiation is 30 degrees (“three-fist”) above the horizon, the hourly rate is halved; At 15 degrees it is cut to a third.

Of the four small showers that will be active in the coming weeks, the Kappa Cygnids for Nord observers are cheapest: the constellation of cygnus, of which these meteors seem to be, is high at 10:30 p.m. to observe it for the whole night. Two of the other showers listed comes from the region around the constellations of Aquarius and Capricornus. These constellations are currently at the highest daylight between about 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. in the southern sky.

While the hourly rates of the four small meteor flows are only a fraction of the figures generated by the Perseids, they offer a total of a variety of meteors from different colors, speeds and trajectories.

These four are listed in the following table:

Wipe to scroll horizontally

Smaller summer meteor showers
Shower name	Period of visibility	Lace	Hourly rate	Comments
Delta aquarids	July 12th – August 23rd	29.-31. July	25	Swift, passed out, yellow-white.
Alpha -Capricornide	July 3 – August 15th	July 31st	5	Slow, bright, a few fire balls.
ETA eridanid	July 31 – August 19th	August 7th	3	Moderately bright, quick speed
Kappa Cygnids	August 3 – August 28th	August 16	3	Slowly moving, sometimes flirting fire balls

The first of our showers are the Delta aquarids, with a wide three-day maximum run from July 29th to 31st. Already on July 12th to August 23. This shower actually consists of two beams, one north and the other south, which indicates that we see two different currents of granular debris that burn in the earth's atmosphere in the earth. Up to two dozen faster, weak meteors per hour are provided by this shower.

The moon is in a growing crescent phase during the time of the top activity and is defined long before midnight. Therefore, it is good from the picture when the double radiation crosses the meridian at 2:30 a.m., which means cheap viewing circumstances in the morning. It is believed that the aquariides in the southern Delta interact with our atmosphere with our atmosphere in order to come from the comet 96p/Machholz. This short -period comet circles the sun every five years. Comet Machholz was discovered in 1986 by the late Donald Machholz.

A much weaker shower is the Alpha-Capricornids, which ends on July 31 on July 31 on the climax on August 15th. The moon set comes on the evening of July 30th at 11:00 p.m. and the time when the radiation exceeds the meridian at 1:30 a.m., which is well fit this year and also overlaps with the peak value of the delta aquaride.

The positions of the north and south rays of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower as well as the radiation -Capricornid -Metor shower are displayed on the morning of July 31 at 2 a.m. local daylight time when both showers are directed with maximum activity. (Credit: Joe Rao)

Although the Alpha Capricornids produce on average only about 5 per hour, they often produce bright yellow fire balls that can be quite spectacular. These meteors are the Druss -Shed of the Comet 169P/Neat, the path of which crosses the earth every year at that time at that time.

The last small shower of the Perseids are the ETA Eridanids, which can be detected from July 31 to August 19. With the top activity on August 7, the moon is only determined at 3:30 a.m., since the radiation in the southeast gains height. An hour later the dawn breaks and gave little time for the observation. Only about three members per hour are seen under good conditions. These meteors seem to be related to a weak comet that travels in a parabolic orbit that was observed by telescopes between May and June 1852. From the French astronomer Jean Chacornac.

A decreasing Gibbous moon (19 days old) will dominate the morning sky on August 12th to spoil the Perseids. The radiant, which rises near the famous double star stroke of Perseus, in the evening and is 70 degrees in the north northeast at the dawn. When maximum occurs in a dark sky, this rich electricity is on average more than 90 members per hour, although higher prices have been observed occasionally. Many flaming meteors with trains can be seen under a good sky, but only the brightest of them will be visible in 2025. This shower usually extends from July 17th to August 24th.

The last summer shower is the Kappa Cygnids (followed by the Orionids in the last half of October). The borders of this shower ran from August 3 to 28 with the climax on August 16. Although the maximum is only three per hour, the electricity flaming fireballs delivers and the careful observer can be well rewarded for the widespread time. At 24 days in old age, the decreasing crescent will appear at 11:45 p.m., but the hours before midnight are those who can be selected for this shower. The radiation goes over head almost at 10:30 a.m.

Our data is based on two sources: the Meteor shower calendar of the International Meteor Organization (IMO) for 2025, compiled by Jürgen Rendtel and the meteor section of the Handbuch by Margaret Campbell-Brown and Peter Brown.

We will say more about the Perseids in early August. So stay on Space.com to get more details.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History MagazinePresent Heaven and telescope and other publications.

topicnews · July 18, 2025

The Perseid meteor shower starts the summer season of the Summer Shooting Star this week. So see it

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