Watch bright meteors flash across the Milky Way this summer

Yahoo

10-06-2025

Warm summer nights are great for staying up late to stargaze. So keep tabs on the weather forecast throughout the season, because there is plenty to see in the sky.
Watch for some of the brightest planets to be visible in the predawn and evening skies during the summer months. Plus, see the core of our Milky Way Galaxy crossing the sky each night, and keep a sharp eye out during two remarkable meteor showers, the first of which could be of alien origin and the second that counts as one of the best of the year.
Here is our guide to the astronomical sights on display for Canada in Summer 2025:
June 20/21 — Summer Solstice and Longest Day of the Year
June 22 — Venus near the Crescent Moon (predawn)
June 26 — Mercury near the Crescent Moon (early evening)
June 29 — Mars near the Crescent Moon (evening)
July 3 — Aphelion (Earth's farthest distance from the Sun for 2025)
July 10-11 — Full Buck Moon
July 16 — Saturn near the Gibbous Moon
July 21 to 23 — Crescent Moon passes Venus and then Jupiter (predawn)
July 28 — Mars near the Crescent Moon (evening)
July 29 to 31 — Southern delta Aquariid Meteor Shower peaks
August 8-9 — Full Sturgeon Moon
August 11 & 12 — Saturn near the Gibbous Moon
August 12 — Jupiter and Venus very close together (predawn)
August 12 — Perseid Meteor Shower peaks
August 19 & 20 — Crescent Moon passes Jupiter and Venus (predawn)
August 26 — Mars near the Crescent Moon (evening)
September 7-8 — Full Corn Moon
September 16 to 19 — Crescent Moon passes Jupiter then Venus (predawn)
September 21 — Saturn Opposition (closest, brightest for the year)
September 22 — Fall Equinox
Visit our for an in-depth look at the Summer Forecast, tips to plan for it, and much more!
At 2:42 UTC on June 21, the Sun will reach its highest point in the sky in the northern hemisphere for this year.
This 'pause' in the position of the Sun in the sky will mark the start of northern Astronomical Summer for 2025. This occurs just after midnight on the 21st for Newfoundland, but in the hours before midnight on the 20th for the rest of Canada.
This solargraph image records the path of the Sun across the sky each day from summer solstice to winter solstice in 2023, interrupted only by cloudy skies. (Bret Culp)
This is also the longest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere, at least with respect to how much daylight we see.
However, due to the timing of this solstice, something special happens for about a third of our country. From eastern Ontario to the Atlantic Coast, both June 20 and June 21 will have exactly the same amount of daylight, down to the second. That means there will be two longest days of the year!
For the rest of the country, June 21 will be around one second shorter than June 20. So, it may still feel like there's two longest days of the year.
To start off the season, early risers can spot the planets Venus and Saturn in the eastern predawn sky. For evening stargazers, Mercury and Mars will be visible in the western sky in the hours just after sunset.
Simulated views of the eastern predawn and western evening skies on June 21, 2025. Note: the Moon is shown larger than it actually appears. (Stellarium)
While the exact timing of when it rises and its exact position in the sky will change, Venus will continue to show up as the 'morning star' each day this summer. Similarly, each evening, Mars will emerge from twilight to shine there, getting closer and closer to the horizon with each 'return'.
At the same time, Mercury will only remain visible in the west until early July. After that, it gets a bit too close to the Sun, but will pop up again in the predawn sky starting in the second week of August. Meanwhile Saturn will rise earlier and earlier, and thus will be visible for longer each night, as we approach the planet's "opposition" — its closest and brightest — at the end of the season.
Even though we 'lost' Jupiter from our evening sky around the end of May, the giant planet can be 'found' again starting in mid-July. You'll have to get up early to see it, though, as it will appear in the morning sky instead, starting just before sunrise, and then rising earlier and earlier as the season progresses.
Watch closely in the predawn sky during the second week of August, but especially on the morning of the 12th, to see Jupiter pass by Venus close enough that the two planets will appear to nearly touch.
Jupiter and Venus pass close enough to appear to touch in the mid-August predawn sky. (Stellarium/Scott Sutherland)
Also be sure to look up throughout the season to see the Moon close by to these planets. The Crescent Moon will be near Venus on the morning of June 22, Mercury in the evening of June 26, and then Mars on June 29.
In July, the Waning Gibbous Moon will cross the sky with Saturn on the 16th, the Waning Crescent Moon will pass by Venus and Jupiter from the 21st through the 23rd, and we'll see the Waxing Crescent Moon near Mars on the 28th.
This same pattern repeats in August and September, with the dates shifted a few days earlier each time.
For August, we'll see Saturn and the Gibbous Moon on the 11th and 12th, the Waning Crescent Moon passing Jupiter and Venus on the 19th and 20th, and the Waxing Crescent Moon with Mars on the 26th. Then in September, it'll be the 8th and 9th for Saturn and the Gibbous Moon, and the 16th through the 19th for the Crescent Moon passing Jupiter and Venus in the predawn sky.
On the second to last night of the season, September 20-21, look for Saturn in the southern sky. The ringed planet will be at its brightest, as this night marks Opposition, when the Sun, Earth, and Saturn align perfectly.
Saturn centred in the southern sky on the night of September 20-21, when it is at its closest and brightest of the year. Inset is a simulated telescopic view of the planet and several of its brightest moons visible (at 1:45 a.m. EDT), which are numbered and labelled. (Stellarium/Scott Sutherland)
This is the planet's closest distance to Earth for the year, so it's a great time to grab a good pair of binoculars or a telescope to see the planet for yourself. Also, as we're 6 months past the March 2025 'ring crossing', we can once-again glimpse the planet's beautiful ring system glittering in the sunlight.
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On July 3, at exactly 3:55 p.m. EDT, our planet will reach its farthest distance from the Sun for this year. This is known as aphelion (pronounced ah-FEEL-ee-uhn).
At that time, Earth will be around 152,087,733 km from the Sun, or nearly 2.5 million km farther than its average distance of 149,597,871 km (1 'astronomical unit').
This particular aphelion is actually one of the closest we've seen in decades.
The average aphelion distance between Earth and the Sun is 152,097,701 km. However, as the other planets exert their gravitational influence on us, our orbit around the Sun changes slightly year-to-year. This means that our distances to the Sun at perihelion (in January) and aphelion (in July) also change. Thus, depending on the year, we could have a 'farthest aphelion' (or 'farthest farthest distance') or even a 'closest aphelion' (or 'closest farthest distance').
This year we will be 9,957 km closer to the Sun than usual. That is Earth's 'closest farthest distance' from the Sun since 2001, when our aphelion distance was 10,122 km closer than average.
There are three Full Moons in Summer 2025 — the July 10-11 Buck Moon, the August 8-9 Sturgeon Moon, and the September 7-8 Corn Moon.
The three Full Moons of Summer 2025. (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio/Scott Sutherland)
After the 'micromoons' of spring, and the upcoming 'supermoons' of fall, these will be all 'average' sized Full Moons.
In September, there will be a Total Lunar Eclipse on the night of the Full Moon, similar to the March 13-14 eclipse that was seen from across Canada. However, due to the timing of this one, we won't see it from Canada. It will only be directly visible from Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. There could be livestreams of this celestial alignment, though, so keep an eye out for updates on the event.
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Every summer, we see two 'major' meteor showers, as Earth crosses a couple of overlapping streams of comet debris in space. As we pass through them, the bits of dust and gravel within these streams produce meteors streaking across our night skies.
The first of these is the Southern delta Aquariids, which begin on July 12 as we encounter debris attributed to 96P/Machholz — an odd 'sungrazer' comet with a weird chemical makeup that could (maybe) indicate that it originates from beyond our solar system.
For the first two weeks of the delta Aquariids, observers typically see only one or two meteors every hour, which can be traced back to a point in the sky in the constellation Aquarius. These meteors show up starting around 10:30 to 11 p.m. each night, and can appear anywhere overhead from then until morning twilight.
The radiant of the Southern delta Aquariid meteor shower, early in the morning on July 31, 2025. The lunar phase during the peak (inset, top right) is the Waxing Crescent Moon. (Stellarium/Scott Sutherland)
However, in the final few days of July, the number of delta Aquariid meteors jumps up, roughly doubling each night until they reach around 20-25 per hour on the nights of July 31 and August 1.
After that, the numbers drop off again, but a few per hour can still be spotted each night up until August 23.
Although not counted among the strongest showers of the year, delta Aquariid meteors still tend to be reasonably bright.
In 2025, the timing of this meteor shower is fairly good compared to the phase of the Moon. Ideal conditions would be having a New Moon around the 31st or 1st, but this year there is a Waxing Crescent Moon and First Quarter Moon in the sky on those nights. Still, the best time to view the delta Aquariids is in the hours after midnight, when the radiant is higher in the southern sky, and that will be after the Moon sets on the nights of the peak.
Earth plunges into the second debris stream starting on July 17. Left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, the meteoroids from this stream put on one of the best meteor displays in the northern hemisphere — the Perseid meteor shower.
The location of the Perseids radiant in the northeast, at midnight on August 12-13, 2025. The phase of the moon is shown inset, top right, and the meteors in that portion of the sky are more 'washed out' due to the moonlight. (Stellarium/Scott Sutherland)
As with the delta Aquariids, the Perseids start off fairly quiet for the first two weeks or so. The number of meteors then quickly ramps up in early August. During the peak — on the night of August 12-13 — the shower is capable of delivering up to 100 meteors per hour. Sometimes even more!
The Perseids also have the distinction of having the greatest number of fireball meteors compared to any other meteor shower of the year. A 'fireball' is any meteor that is at least as bright as the planet Venus, and they can be visible for hundreds of kilometres around, even during a Full Moon or from under severe urban light pollution. If you spot a fireball in the sky, try to remember as much about it as possible — what direction you were facing at the time, where it started and where it ended, how many seconds it lasted, if it appeared to break up, and if you heard any noise associated with it — and report your sighting to the American Meteor Society.
Watch: Perseid fireball captured on camera
Click here to view the video
The Perseids radiant — the position the meteors appear to originate from in the sky — is a special one. Most meteor shower radiants rise and set along with the stars. However, positioned in the northern sky as it is, the Perseids radiant never sets at this time of year. The meteor shower continues day and night, and we just have to wait until it is sufficiently dark for a chance to spot the meteors streaking overhead.
The peak of this year's shower falls just a few days after the Full Moon, so we will have a Waning Gibbous Moon in the sky for most of the night. Unfortunately, this will cause many of the dimmer meteors to become washed out by moonlight, leaving only the brightest for use to see. For the best chance of spotting meteors, seek out the clearest, darkest skies in your area, and keep the Moon out of your direct line of sight.
Given the less-than-ideal viewing conditions during the peak of the Perseids, the best time to get out to see summer meteor showers could be on the night of July 31 to August 1. At that time, the rates from both the delta Aquariids and the Perseids should roughly match, and with the Moon setting around midnight, the hours after should be dark enough to spy meteors from both showers crisscrossing in the sky overhead.
The radiant of the Southern delta Aquariid meteor shower, at midnight local time, during the peak of the shower on the night of July 31-August 1, 2025. The Perseid meteor shower will also be active at this time, with meteors originating from the northeast. The lunar phase during the peak (inset, top right) is the First Quarter Moon. (Stellarium/Scott Sutherland)
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"This is the time of year when the Milky Way is visible as a faint band of hazy light arching across the sky all night," says NASA. "You just need to be under dark skies away from bright city lights to see it."
The central core of our Milky Way galaxy is a mixture of bright stars and dark bands of dust in this photo captured from one of the best dark-sky locations on Earth. (Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn, used with permission)
"What you're looking at is the bright central core of our home galaxy, seen edge-on, from our position within the galaxy's disk," NASA explained.
The galactic core is visible in our skies throughout much of summer. You don't need to travel to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile to experience it, though. A trip out of the city, to get out from under urban light pollution, and a bit of time to let your eyes adjust to the dark, might be all you need. Look up your local chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), and check out any star parties they have on their calendar of events.
At 2:19 p.m. EDT on September 22, the Sun will cross the celestial equator headed from north to south, marking the fall equinox for the northern hemisphere.
Once we transition to Astronomical Fall, get ready for meteor shower season, when there's at least one meteor shower (but often more than one) active each and every night!
Click here to view the video