Two major meteor showers will peak at the end of the month and light up night sky over NSW

Sky News AU

6 days ago

Sydneysiders are expected to get a rare celestial treat at the end of the month with two meteor showers set to light up the night sky.
The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Capricornids will peak days apart from each other - with the former peaking on July 28 and the Capricornids peaking on July 30.
Speaking to TimeOut Sydney, Associate Professor Devika Kamath from Macquarie University's School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences said the best times to view the meteor showers are between midnight and 4am.
'In the early evening, the radiants (the points where meteors appear to originate) rise in the northeast," she said. "By midnight, they're high in the northern sky, and by pre-dawn, they drift toward the northwest. Scanning this arc will maximise your chances of catching long, dramatic trails.'
But Sydneysiders expecting to see this spectacle may want to travel outside the Sydney area to areas like the Blue Mountains or regional areas outside the city.
Last year, a full moon ruined the chance of many Australians to view the Geminid meteor shower before Christmas.
Speaking to SBS News about the Geminid showers last year, professor of astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland Jonti Horner said viewing meteor showers is often contingent on the light that is available.
'What a full moon does is it puts a lot of natural light pollution up in the sky, and so it hides the meteors," she said.
She also said that artificial light pollution from the cities can also mask the meteors.
Meteors are space rocks that burn up in the atmosphere, most of them originating from a comet or an asteroid field.
Some pass through intact, but others burn up leaving a trail which has been termed as a shooting star.