![\"Comet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788246877_964_0x0.jpg\")
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Comet C\/1911 N1 (Kiess), the parent body of the Alpha Aurigids meteor shower, photographed by Ferdinand Qu\u00e9nisset from the Flammarion Observatory, Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, on July 29, 1911.<\/p>\n
Ferdinand Qu\u00e9nisset (public domain) <\/p>\n
Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 1 and Wednesday, Sept. 2, an annual meteor shower comes to its peak. But have you ever heard of it? I haven\u2019t \u2014 and I\u2019ve been a stargazer for a couple of decades.<\/p>\n
The Alpha Aurigid meteor shower is what skywatchers \u2014 at least, those that have heard of it \u2014 call \u201cmodest.\u201d Active from Aug. 25 through Sept. 5, during the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 2, it may be possible to see around five to 10 meteors per hour under clear, dark skies.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not many \u2014 and, in practice, some of those will happen out of your field of view. You\u2019ll probably see one or two at best during an hour outside in the dark.<\/p>\n
The Origin Of The Alpha Aurigids<\/p>\n
The Alpha Aurigids come from comet C\/1911 N1 (Kiess), a long-period comet that enters the inner solar system every 2,490 years. It was last close to the sun in 1911. It\u2019s rarely been an impressive meteor shower, but it did produce around 200 \u201cshooting stars\u201d per hour during an outburst in 2007.<\/p>\n
When And Where to Watch<\/p>\n
The best time to look up will be in the pre-dawn hours after midnight when the shower\u2019s source constellation \u2014 Auriga \u2014 climbs high into the northeastern sky. A winter constellation whose bright star Capella will be familiar to skywatchers, Auriga will appear above the east before dawn. However, it\u2019s not as relevant as you may think because \u201cshooting stars\u201d can appear anywhere in the sky \u2014 it\u2019s just that they will appear to have come from the direction of Auriga.<\/p>\n
Should You Bother?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re keen to see \u201cshooting stars,\u201d just go stargazing on any clear night \u2014 you\u2019re bound to see at least one. Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 1 and Wednesday, Sept. 2, you\u2019re marginally more likely; that\u2019s all. So don\u2019t plan a huge observing party or get friends and family out of bed early \u2014 it\u2019s not that kind of meteor shower. But if you\u2019re in the Northern Hemisphere, where Auriga is highest, and you\u2019re going to be outside doing astronomy in any case, find an open dark area away from bright city lights \u2014 and avoid telescopes and binoculars. The naked eye is the only way to see meteors.<\/p>\n
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comet C\/1911 N1 (Kiess), the parent body of the Alpha Aurigids meteor shower, photographed by Ferdinand Qu\u00e9nisset from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[305053,305057,305056,49,48,305058,305055,305054,305060,305061,305059,66,136967],"class_list":["post-879173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-alpha-aurigid-meteor-shower","tag-alpha-aurigids-2026","tag-best-time-for-meteor-shower","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-comet-c-1911-n1-kiess","tag-how-to-watch-meteor-showers","tag-meteor-shower-august","tag-meteor-shower-viewing","tag-night-sky-events","tag-rare-meteor-showers","tag-science","tag-stargazing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}