Delta Aquarids Due to Light Up Dark Skies This Weekend

Looking for a reason to spend this weekend staring at the night sky? There's no better than the Delta Aquarids meteor shower.

A reliable and predicable shower, the Delta Aqauarids meteors show up in Earth's sky once every five years and can last many many nights.

NASA reports that this year the shower saw its officials start on July 12 and will last into August 23. However, during this period of activity, only the occasional meteor might be seen per night. Peak activity will be between July 28 and 29, with a small build-up expected over this weekend.

"It gets that name because the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Aquarius," Kelly Beatty, a senior contributing editor for Sky & Telescope magazine, told the Weather Channel.

Beatty added that for people in the US, the best time to start watching for meteorites will be soon after midnight tonight, as a new moon will leave the sky adequately dark and devoid of distracting moonlight.

Of course, while the famous streaks of light appear to be originating from the stellar water jug of Aquarius, they are actually just bits of dust and rock burning up in Earths atmosphere. According to NASA, a cloud of this cosmic debris was left behind in the wake of the comet 96P/Machholz.

First discovered in 1986 by astronomer Donald Machholz, the four-mile-wide comet has been gradually growing closer and closer to the Sun in its spiraling orbit. As comets draw closer, they start to sweat away ice and dust, creating a trail called a coma.

Left to its own devices, this trail of comet 'sheddings' eventually becomes just a cloud of dust, ice, and rock that the Earth will predictably pass through every few years.

While not as glamorous as a constellation firing away bits of light, the result of this process is the same - brilliant streaks of fierily light arching through the sky to the wonder of onlookers everywhere.