NEW JERSEY – Look at the Delta Aquarid meteor shower, which peaks Tuesday and Wednesday over New Jersey, as a dress rehearsal of what’s to come as you look up into the sky for something still normal this summer that hasn’t been the summer. overturned by the coronavirus.
Delta Aquarids, and all meteor showers, are best seen in dark skies, away from the crowds of light-polluting people, making social distance easy as you scan the skies for shooting stars.
The National Weather Service calls for mostly cloudy skies in New Jersey Tuesday night and early Wednesday, when the long, hectic Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks and reliably delivers around 20 meteors per hour.
Although not as prolific as the Perseid meteorites, which now fly and peak in mid-August, as many as 10 percent of Delta Aquarids leave lingering trains. That is, the glowing traces of ionized gas can last one to two seconds after the meteorite passes.
The best time to see them is after midnight, as is the case with most meteor showers. But the crescent crescent moon that has been appearing in the evening sky sets just after midnight, offering a moonless view during the hours before sunrise.
The Delta Aquarids continue to fly until mid-August and intersect with the Perseid meteor shower. Already up and running through August 24, the Perseids reliably produce about 60 shooting stars per hour at their earliest morning peak on August 11-13 this year.
Don’t wait until then to try to find the Perseids. A waxing gibbous moon that begins in August will be troublesome and the second quarter moon at the peak of the Perseids will fade. But the Perseids are so brilliant and prolific that it should still be a winner.
So is the shooting star a Delta Aquarid or a Perseid? The alternative answer is that either way, a shooting star is a beautiful sight to behold, but if you really want to distinguish a Delta Aquarid from a Perseid meteorite, the short answer is that the former seems to fly from the south and the Perseids from the north. -Northeast. Earthsky.org adds:
“This is where the concept of a radiant point comes in handy. If you trace all the Delta Aquariid meteorites backwards, they seem to radiate from a certain point in front of the constellation Aquarius the Water Carrier, which, as seen from the northern hemisphere, arches through the southern sky The radiant point of the rain almost aligns with the star Skat (Delta Aquarii) The meteor shower is named after this star.
“Meanwhile, the Perseids radiate from the Perseus constellation in the northeast to the northern heights between midnight and sunrise. So, assuming you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, if you’re looking at the Perseids, and you see meteorites coming from the northeast or north, they are Perseids. If you see them coming from the south, they are Delta Aquariids. In a particularly rich year for meteorites, if you have a dark sky, you can even see them crossing! It can be an amazing place. monitor. “
