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Watch the Delta Aquarid meteor shower tonight (stream starts 7pm PT/10pm ET)

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GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Article link. Live stream here.

You can watch the spectacular night sky show of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower with a live online broadcast from the Slooh Space Camera, starting tonight at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the debris left behind by a comet as it swung in close to the sun during its orbit. Tiny chunks of the comet hit our atmosphere at 90,000 mph, burning up and producing beautiful streaks in the sky. Nobody knows precisely which comet causes the Delta Aquarids because the originating body has been too faint and elusive to accurately track. One suspect is Comet 96P Machholz, which was discovered in 1986 and comes close to the sun every five years, but the link has never been definitively proven.

The most famous summer meteor shower, the Perseids is often the most spectacular, with more than 50 shooting stars per hour. But this year’s Perseids happen to peak on Aug. 12, quite close to the full moon, whose bright light will dim the shower’s magnificence. The Delta Aquarids peak tonight, just a couple days after the new moon, meaning that its light will not be around to interfere with the night sky show.

To really enhance the view, Slooh will be broadcasting images of the sky using special super-sensitive low-light equipment at its telescope in the Canary Islands. Watchers in the U.S. can also double their Delta Aquarid time by first watching the Slooh show and then heading out to a dark sky location between midnight and early morning, when you should be able to spot 15 to 20 meteors per hour. If you’re able to track down a star chart, you can use it to locate the bright star Fomalhaut, which will be just below the spot where the meteors appear to come from.
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More from NASA.

About the Meteor Shower
The Delta Aquarids are active beginning in mid-July and are visible until late-August. These faint meteors are difficult to spot, and if there is a moon you will not be able to view them. If the moon has set, your best chance to see the Delta Aquarids is when meteor rates rise during the shower's peak at the end of July.

If you are unable to view the Delta Aquarids during their peak, look for them again during the Perseids in August: You will know that you have spotted a Delta Aquarid if the meteor is coming from the direction of the constellation Aquarius -- its radiant will be in the southern part of the sky. The Perseid radiant is in the northern part of the sky.

Viewing Tips
The Delta Aquarids are best viewed in the Southern Hemisphere and southern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Find an area well away from city or street lights. Come prepared with a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair. Lie flat on your back and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible. However, looking halfway between the horizon and the zenith, and 45 degrees from the constellation of Aquarius will improve your chances of viewing the Delta Aquarids. In less than 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adapt and you will begin to see meteors. Be patient -- the show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.

Where Do Meteors Come From?
Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids. When comets come around the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits. Every year the Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.

The Comet
The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Delta Aquarids are suspected to originate from comet 96P/Machholz. This short period comet orbits the sun about once every five years.

Comet Machholz was discovered by Donald Machholz in 1986. Comet Machholz's nucleus is 6.4 km ( about 4 miles) across (this is a little more than half the size of the object hypothesized to have led the demise of the dinosaurs).

The Radiant
Their radiant -- the point in the sky from which the Delta Aquarids appear to come from -- is the constellation Aquarius. The third brightest star within this constellation is called Delta. This star and the constellation is also where we get the name for the shower: Delta Aquarids.

Note: The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night. The constellation is not the source of the meteors. The name of a star (Delta) is part of this shower's name in order to help distinguish it from another meteor shower, the Eta Aquarids, which peak in May.
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D

Delta Assault

Member
Wait, I remember this... it was a popular 80s movie...

jir9RNZ.jpg
 
T

Tehalemi

Member
omg I saw one a few minutes ago on the prescot feed, top right! :O It was so bright compared to the stars, and lasted for at least 10 seconds on the feed. So beautiful. :')
 
E

echoshifting

Banned
This is a great shower. Caught a dozen in ~45 minutes just now...nothing too bright or awe-inspiring, but I was impressed with the frequency given my location (Oregon). Get out there and take a gander with your peepers if you're still up, gaffers. You really do need to look right towards Aquarius for this one; I only caught one stray.
 
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