Wednesday is shaping up as one of the best days of the year to look up at the sky in Illinois, with a planetary parade, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower and, in some places, a solar eclipse all packed into one unusually busy day in the sky.
The big question, as always, is whether the weather will cooperate. Clear skies will matter most once darkness falls and the meteors start flying.
According to National Weather Service (NWS), Wednesday looks to start out overcast, with a 50 percent chance of showers and storms. Most of the rain will hit between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., per NWS.
There's still hope for skywatchers after 5 p.m., as the forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and only a slight chance of rain.
The celestial tripleheader actually begins before breakfast. Six planets — Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune — will be above the horizon before sunrise Wednesday, according to AccuWeather.
Don't expect all six to jump out at you. Mars and Saturn should be the easiest to spot with the naked eye, shining high in the southern sky. Jupiter and Mercury will be low in the east as morning twilight begins, while Uranus and Neptune are faint enough to require binoculars or a telescope.
Later Wednesday, a solar eclipse will be visible from parts of North America and Europe. The moon will completely block the sun in parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, Spain and a small section of Portugal. In the United States, viewers in 26 states and the District of Columbia will see a partial solar eclipse, according to NASA.
While the moon will appear to swallow the sun whole in other parts of the world, Illinois residents will see more of a polite nibble.
In Illinois, the partial eclipse starts at 12:09 p.m. and ends at 12:44 p.m.
Although the sun will never be completely covered in Illinois, you'll still need proper eye protection.
Then comes the nightcap — and probably the main attraction.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The timing is about as good as it gets. A new moon means the sky will be especially dark for anyone who can get away from city lights. Under clear, dark skies, skywatchers could see around 100 meteors or more an hour.
The first meteors should begin appearing shortly after nightfall, with the show picking up later in the night.
The Perseids are beloved partly because they arrive when people are already outside — on vacations, at campgrounds, in back yards, on docks and around late-night fires.
They're known for bright meteors, occasional fireballs and lingering trains—those brief glowing streaks that seem to hang in the sky after the meteor is gone.
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