{"id":576785,"date":"2026-07-31T07:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576785\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:45:24","slug":"the-sky-today-on-thursday-july-30-meteors-may-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576785\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Thursday, July 30: Meteors may shine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThe Alpha Capricornid and the Southern Delta Aquariid meteor showers peak overnight, but the bright Moon will run interference.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

July 29: July\u2019s Full Buck Moon rises<\/a><\/p>\n

Today marks the convergence of two meteor showers, as both the Alpha Capricornids and the Southern Delta Aquariids peak. But despite the enticing sound of that setup, both showers are quite light, with expected hourly rates of some 5 and 25 meteors per hour, respectively, even at their very best. Plus, there\u2019s the bright, just-past-Full Moon to contend with, and it\u2019s right in the thick of things, hanging near the border of Capricornus and Aquarius.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the unfortunate setup, you can still test your luck overnight and into the early morning of July 31. The Southern Delta Aquariids\u2019 radiant rises in the east around 9:30 P.M. local daylight time and stands highest in the south a few hours after midnight. You\u2019ll want to look in the regions of sky some 40\u00b0 to 60\u00b0 on either side of the Full Moon for meteors \u2014 this is where the longest trains will appear, and also offers a better chance of a sighting with the Moon out of direct view. It will be a challenge, but any shooting stars you do see should feel doubly rewarding!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Moon will hide nearly all Southern Delta Aquariid meteors this year, but you can try to spot a few early on July 31. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly<\/p>\n

Sunrise: 5:57 A.M.
Sunset: 8:15 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:02 P.M.
Moonset: 6:49 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (98%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still up early on the 31st to catch the brightest Southern Delta Aquariid meteors, turn your gaze eastward about an hour before sunrise (roughly 5 A.M. local daylight time) to look for Mercury, now magnitude 0.5 and roughly 4\u00b0 above the eastern horizon. The small planet should be bright enough to spot easily if your horizon is clear. You may even notice that it stands directly in line with two faint stars, Delta (\u03b4) and Lambda (\u03bb) Geminorum, although these two pinpricks of light will quickly disappear in the encroaching twilight.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\t\tMercury has now brightened to magnitude 0.5 and should be relatively easy to spot in the east before sunrise. You might even catch it standing in line with two fainter stars in Gemini if you look early enough. Credit: Stellarium<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re able, try to take a closer peek at the planet with a telescope, as long as you\u2019re mindful of the time and put your instrument away well before sunrise. Under magnification, Mercury\u2019s disk spans 8\u201d on the sky and shows off a slim crescent with 33% of its surface illuminated. Because Mercury has no significant atmosphere, you\u2019re seeing all the way down directly to its cratered surface when you look at it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The Alpha Capricornid and the Southern Delta Aquariid meteor showers peak overnight, but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123,247],"class_list":["post-576785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}