The best nights of stargazing are upon us. For the next two weeks, if you like to go outside at night, go outside. The Milky Way is rising in the east after twilight. The likely hood that you’ll see a shooting star increases the longer you are outside.

There are two meteor showers that coincide at the start of August. The meteors of both showers will likely overlap. Plus, the glaring moon will not interfere.
The Delta Aquarids peaked this week, on Wednesday morning and more meteors are yet to be seen from this shower.

Later in August, the famed Perseid meteor shower will peak on Wednesday, August 11 through the morning of Thursday, August 12.

While the dates of these two meteor showers is fixed, almost in stone, there is more than just a date. Being outside, you have a great chance to see early and late stragglers.

Meteors are tiny pieces of space debris from passing comets. The particles are no bigger than a dime, and as small as a grain of sand. Yet they approach the Earth at breaking speed, over 30 miles per second.

As they enter our atmosphere they burn up. The meteor remnants are smaller than particles of dust and float harmlessly down on top of us.