Perseids, Delta Aquariids: How To See Summer Meteor Showers In Illinois

The always anticipated Perseids meteor shower began July 17 as Earth passed through the path of the Comet Swift-Tuttle, but the shower known for its blazing bright meteors won’t peak until Saturday, Aug. 12. If your eyes feast on any meteors before then, they could be part of the Delta Aquariids meteor shower, which started last week, peaked July 29 and 30, and continues through Sunday, Aug. 13. The best time to spot the Delta Aquariids is after midnight, according to the American Meteor Society.

If you look up in Illinois at night this week, you might catch a glimpse of meteors. The National Weather Service predicts partly cloudy skies across the region through Saturday, with a chance of storms showers and storms Wednesday through the weekend.

The Delta Aquariids meteor shower is the warm-up act for the Perseids. The latter show is so reliable and ooh-and-ahh worthy that stargazers plan around it with camping excursions and treks to dark sky preserves.

NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke advises stargazers to allow about 30 minutes for their eyes to adjust to the dark and then settle in for a few hours during the Perseids meteor shower peak. Those who are patient will be rewarded, he said, noting that at a rate of 150 meteors per hour, stargazers should see about two or three a minutes — some faint trails of light, others generating fireballs. (SIGN UP: Get Patch’s daily newsletter. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The earlier show produces about 20 meteors an hour at its peak and is regarded as an average meteor shower. A crescent moon will have set by the time they tune up, leaving skies dark for the late-night and early-morning Delta Aquariids meteor shower, according to seasky.org.

The Perseids meteor shower, the main act, is good for up to 150 meteors an hour, according to space.com. This year, a waning gibbous moon — one that appears less than half full but is more than half-lighted — could block out some of the fainter meteors, but the Perseids are so bright that you should still plan on catching the show. The meteors radiate from the constellation Perseus, but you’ll be able to see them no matter where you’re looking in the sky.

• Total Solar Eclipse 2017: Best Spots To See It In Illinois
• 2017 Patch Guide To Meteor Showers, Total Solar Eclipse, Other Celestial Events

The Perseids’ Aug. 12 peak comes when Earth passes through the densest, dustiest area of the wide path of Comet Swift-Tuttle — about 16 miles wide at its nucleus, according to space.com. The last time it passed near Earth was during its orbit of the sun in 1992, something that won’t happen again until 2126. The comet itself is a rare occurrence, but the annual meteor shower is a brilliant reminder of it.

In Chicagoland, you'll likely be able to catch a glimpse of the meteor shower if you're in an area without a lot of light pollution, such as Silver Springs State Park in Yorkville. If you really want to see the show, your best bet is to take a short drive: The Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton, located about an hour east of the city, is a great spot to watch the show.

Barring cloudy weather, the University of Illinois Springfield Astronomy-Physics Program will also host a Perseid Meteor Shower Star Party beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, at Lincoln Memorial Garden, 2301 East Lake Drive.

Meteors are pieces of comet debris that heat up as they enter the atmosphere then burn in a bright burst of light that streaks across the sky at up to 37 miles per second, according to space.com. Most of the Perseids meteors are so small — they’re about the size of a grain of sand — that they’ll never become “meteorites” that fall to the Earth.

— Story by Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images News/Getty Images