How you can watch a dual meteor shower this week

WASHINGTON — The night sky is putting on a meteor shower duet this week. 

Two meteor showers will peak simultaneously Tuesday night into Wednesday, giving stargazers a celestial double feature. The Alpha Capricornids and the Southern Delta Aquarids will begin their peak late on July 29 into the early hours of July 30. 

The meteors should appear bright and clear as the moon will only be about a quarter full, offering a near-perfect canvas for the cosmic spectacle. 

Both meteor showers will remain active until mid-August, according to the American Meteorological Society. Right around that time, the Perseirds, called the “best meteor shower of the year,” will peak on the night of Aug. 12 into the morning of Aug. 13, NASA says. 

The Alpha Capricornids and the Southern Delta Aquarids may product up to a dozen meteors each under dark skies. 

The doubleheader event means the total number of meteors “do add up,” Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium program coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, told the AP. 

“Look for flashes of light in the night sky,” he said, adding that both are “very nice classic meteor showers.”

Stargazers may be able to spot a meteor from the Alpha Capricornids if it has a longer tail that lingers as the shower produces slower-moving meteors.

Find a spot away from city lights and head outside after midnight. Lie flat on your back and look up. Allow yourself at least 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. 

Most meteor showers are best viewed in the pre-dawn hours when the moon is low in the sky. 

Meteor showers occur annually as the Earth passes through debris trails left by comets, NASA says. 

They usually are named after a star or constellation that is close to where they appear in the sky. About 48.5 tons of “meteroritic material” falls on Earth each day, NASA says. Most of the material vaporizes while traveling through Earth’s atmosphere, producing a bright trail known to us as shooting stars. 

NASA says that several meteors can be seen on any given night, but the number dramatically increases during meteor showers.

The next major meteor shower, the Perseids, peaks in mid-August.

The Perseid meteor shower is often one of the most anticipated celestial marvels each year. These meteor showers are a must-watch for any stargazer as they are usually one of the brights and most active ones of the calendar year. 

During peak activity, these showers can bring about 50 to 100 meteors per hour.