Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower

We may be in for a treat over the next few days. Tuesday is the peak day of the Delta Aquaids meteor shower. A meteor is, of course, what we also call a shooting star. Typically a shooting star is a sand grain size bit that comes whooshing into our atmosphere and burns up leaving a bright trail. These meteors will seem to be emanating from the star Delta Aquarii in Aquarius hence the name of the shower.

In fact it's not so much that the meteor crashes into the earth's atmosphere but the other way around. The earth traveling at 18 miles per second around the sun crashes into these bits of dust each year at this time. The dust is a trail of debris left behind from a couple of sun grazing comets.

It’s easy to find where to look right now. That really bright star in the east after about 10:00 pm is Jupiter. Can’t miss it. Aquarius is just to the left of Jupiter right now. Best time for viewing though is around 2 AM when Aquarius will be high in the south. Don't fret if it's cloudy on Tuesday as that's just the peak day. In fact I saw a couple of meteors last night after returning from the Mongolian Bar. . . Of course I saw Elvis too but no matter


So get up and get viewing. We'll be up on Enee Marie right Sue? Sue? . . . SUE!

click on the pic to enlargify!